Nina

Where Nina comes from

Borrowed into English in the nineteenth century, apparently from several sources. Many borrowings are of Russian Ни́на (Nína), the name of a Georgian saint in the fourth century, also known as Nino, of obscure origin and meaning, possibly connected with the Assyrian king Ninus. Others are of an Italian short form of diminutives like Annina from Anna and Giovannina from Giovanna. Phonologically or orthographically similar names are present in several languages, including Afrikaans, Hindi, Italian, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and some Native American languages. In many of those, it is a nickname for names ending in -ina or -nina. (hidden message in crossword): After Nina Hirschfeld, the daughter of the American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld; her name was often concealed in his drawings.
— Wiktionary's entry for Nina
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #134 among girls — 119 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1887
    Peak, #114
    266 babies named Nina — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1955
    Nina Hagen born
    German singer, songwriter, and actress
  4. 1972
    Nina Badrić born
    Croatian singer
In the dictionary
  • A female given name in continuous use since the 19th century.
Namesakes
  • Nina Badrić · Croatian singer, born 1972
  • Nina Hagen · German singer, songwriter, and actress, born 1955
  • Nina Hoss · German actress, born 1975
  • Nina Hartley · American pornographic film actress, born 1959
  • Nina Sublati · Georgian singer, born 1995

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.