Nana

Where Nana comes from

The dictionaries list Nana as a given name — a female given name from Japanese — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Japanese
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1881
    Debut at its peak, #582
    #582 among girls with 9 babies — the first year it was published, and still its best.
  2. 1882
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  3. 1934
    Nana Mouskouri born
    Greek singer
  4. 1944
    Nana Akufo-Addo born
    President of Ghana from 2017 to 2025
  5. 2023
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Japanese.
Namesakes
  • Nana Akufo-Addo · President of Ghana from 2017 to 2025, born 1944
  • Nana Mouskouri · Greek singer, born 1934
  • Nana Patekar · Indian philanthropist, writer, flim actor and film maker, born 1951
  • Nana Alexandria · Georgian chess player, born 1949
  • Nana Visitor · American actress, born 1957

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.