How popular is the baby name Nadezhda in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Nadezhda.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Nadezhda


Posts that mention the name Nadezhda

Babies named for Alla Nazimova

Actress Alla Nazimova in the movie "A Doll's House" (1922).
Alla Nazimova in “A Doll’s House“

Russian-American silent film actress Alla Nazimova (pronounced nah-ZEE-moh-vah) was most popular in the U.S. in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

After becoming a theater star in Russia in the early 1900s, she moved to New York and made her Broadway debut in 1906. Then she successfully transitioned from stage to screen:

In the 1910s Nazimova became one of the first Broadway actresses to match and even surpass her stage success when she became a screen star, reportedly drawing the highest salary in Hollywood from Metro, and creating the type of European exotic with which Pola Negri and, in a different way, Garbo and Deitrich would later become identified.

She was often credited simply as “Nazimova.” Her film company, founded in 1917, was also named Nazimova:

"A Nazimova Production"

The name Nazimova has never surfaced in the U.S. baby name data, but I’ve found several dozen U.S. females named Nazimova. Most were born around the time the actress was at the height of her fame. Some examples…

  • Nazimova Ratleff (née Bordenave), b. 1917 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Marvine Gatwood (née Edwards), b. 1919 in Ohio
  • Nazimova McKinley (née Hastings), b. 1920 in Indiana
  • Nazimova Goodale (née Hatcher), b. 1920 in Iowa
  • Nazimova Smith, b. circa 1920 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Davis (née Ebright), b. circa 1920 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Williams (née Tolbert), b. 1921 in Mississippi
  • Nazimova Dean (née Moore), b. 1921 in Oklahoma
  • Nazimova Sweeney (née Brunson), b. 1921 in Indiana
  • Nazimova Perry, b. 1922 in Pennsylvania
  • Dorothy Nazimova Shaffer (née Montgomery), b. 1922 in Texas
  • Nazimova Regina Fleming (née Jeanfreau), b. 1922 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Cathrine Naleilehua Katz, b. 1922 in Hawaii
  • Nazimova Brunious (née Santiago), b. 1923 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Lee (née Holland), b. 1923 in Georgia
  • Nazimova Mae Niedermeyer (née Beckett), b. 1924 in Iowa
  • Nazimova Anderson, b. 1925 in Texas

Alla Nazimova was born in Yalta in the late 1870s. Her birth name was Mariam Edez Adelaida “Alla” Leventon. Her stage surname, Nazimova, is said to have been inspired by the character Nadezhda Nazimova from a Russian novel called Children of the Streets.

What are your thoughts on Nazimova as a given name?

P.S. Nazimova’s goddaughter, Anne Frances “Nancy” Robbins, also became an actress — under the name Nancy Davis. Nancy married fellow actor Ronald Reagan in 1952, and went on to serve as First Lady of the United States during most of the 1980s.

Sources:

Five-name Friday: Girl name with “zh” sound

You’re standing on the sidewalk with a small crowd of people, waiting for the walk signal. Next to you is a friendly woman who happens to be pregnant. As the two of you chat, she mentions the type of baby name she’s searching for:

I am absolutely set on finding a name for my daughter that includes the zh/ž sound. I’m looking for something less obviously Slavic than Nadezhda or Anzhelika, and more “namey” than Beige or Treasure.

“Do you have any suggestions?”

You’re a name-lover, and you could potentially give her dozens of suggestions. But the light just changed, so you only have time to give her five baby name suggestions while you cross the street together. (After that, the two of you head off in different directions.)

But here’s the fun part: Instead of blurting out the first five names you come up with, you get to press a magical “pause” button, brainstorm for a bit, and then “unpause” the scenario to offer her the best five names you can think of.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you brainstorm:

  • Be independent. Decide on your five names before looking at anyone else’s five names.
  • Be sincere. Would you honestly suggest these particular baby names out loud to a stranger in public?
  • Five names only! All names beyond the first five in your comment will be either deleted or replaced with nonsense words.

Finally, here’s the request again:

I am absolutely set on finding a name for my daughter that includes the zh/ž sound. I’m looking for something less obviously Slavic than Nadezhda or Anzhelika, and more “namey” than Beige or Treasure.

Which five baby names are you going to suggest?

The baby name Nadiya/Nadia

nadiya chocolate covered dates

My husband went to Dubai on business a few months ago. Being the thoughtful guy he is, he returned bearing gifts. One of his gifts was a box of chocolate-covered dates made by a company called Nadiya Dates.

(Our chocolates didn’t look like the chocolates in the photo, though. They were more like melty amorphous globs, thanks to summertime temperatures in the Middle East. But they were delicious nonetheless.)

Anyway…the name of the chocolate company inspired me to write a quick post about the baby name Nadiya and all related names — Nadia, Nadya, Nadiyya, Nadiyah, Nadiah, Nadyah, Nahdia, and so forth.

In the U.S., the most common spelling is Nadia. This version of the name was popularized in the 1970s by Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Her name is a diminutive of the Russian name Nadezhda, which means “hope.”

But Nadia can come from Arabic as well. In this case, it’s based on a word meaning “moist with dew.” As the authors of A Dictionary of First Names note, “in a hot, dry climate, morning dew is highly valued.”

One name, two distinct derivations. Which origin/definition do you prefer, and why?

P.S. Speaking of chocolate, here’s a list of baby names for chocolate lovers.

Source: Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

How did Nadia Comaneci influence U.S. baby names in 1976?

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Comaneci

At the 1976 Summer Olympics, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first to score a “perfect 10” in a modern Olympic gymnastics event. (She was on the uneven bars at the time.) She ended up earning six more 10s — and winning three gold medals — in Montreal that July.

The same year, Comaneci popped up in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time:

  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: 9 baby girls named Comaneci [debut]
  • 1975: unlisted
  • 1974: unlisted

Comaneci (pronounced koh-mah-NETCH) is one of several Romanian surnames that refer to the Cumans, a Turkic people who migrated to the Carpathian region in the early 13th century.

The name Nadia also got quite a boost in 1976. It jumped not only into the girls’ top 1,000, but straight into the top 500:

  • 1978: 610 baby girls named Nadia [rank: 353rd]
  • 1977: 790 baby girls named Nadia [rank: 303rd]
  • 1976: 585 baby girls named Nadia [rank: 360th]
  • 1975: 86 baby girls named Nadia
  • 1974: 88 baby girls named Nadia

Nadia Comaneci’s first name was inspired by a Russian film character called Nadezhda. Nadia (also spelled Nadya) is a diminutive of Nadezhda, which means “hope” in Russian.

Comaneci now lives in the U.S. and is married to fellow Olympic gymnast Bart Conner. They have a son, Dylan Paul, who is named for Bart’s favorite musician, Bob Dylan, and Bart’s former University of Oklahoma coach, Paul Ziert.

P.S. Soviet gymnast Nelli Kim, who also earned a pair of perfect scores at the 1976 Summer Olympics, is likely behind he debut of Nelli in the U.S. baby name data in 1977.

Sources:

Image: © 1976 Time