Baby Name of the Day: Nora

The baby name Nora makes for a smart classic, a traditional choice perfect for a modern girl.

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.

WHAT DOES THE NAME NORA MEAN?

Not only is Nora timeless, but it’s culture-spanning, too.

That’s thanks to two distinct, but complementary, origins. Or possibly three.

First: the baby name Nora evolved as a short form of Eleanor. 

Eleanor’s origins are fascinating. It comes from a phrase meaning “the other Aenor,” to distinguish a mother from a daughter. We tend to mix up Helen names, like Elena, with Eleanor names, like Lenora and Eleanora. And sometimes we borrow Helen’s meaning – shining or torch – for those Eleanor names, too.

Another possible origin for Nora is the Latin word honorem, which gives us our word honor. The meaning has been little changed across the millennia. Honor is sometimes seen as a given name now, along with elaborations like Honora and Honoria. While babies of any gender could be named Honor, it tends to be more common for girls in the English-speaking world.

But let’s leave Europe behind for a minute. Noor is an Arabic name, which does mean light. Noora, Nura, and Nur are all forms of Noor.

That makes this name a fascinating cross-cultural possibility, easily worn across much of the world.

NORA OF KELMENDI

One of the places the name surfaces: Albanian folklore.

It’s said that Nora of Kelmendi was a beautiful young woman and an accomplished warrior. She caught the eye of an Ottoman pasha. The Ottomans had ruled much of the region beginning in the 1400s. By the time her story takes place, in the seventeenth century, generations had been at war.

While the story varies, Nora ultimately kills the pasha through a mix of cunning and her fighting skills.

It’s even more proof of the baby name Nora’s international reach, as well as a heroic figure to lend the name some strength.

A DOLL’S HOUSE

In 1879, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House gave the world a very controversial Nora.

Spoiler alert: she leaves her husband and children to live an independent life at the end. It was wildly scandalous in its day – so much so that some early performances added a more ambiguous ending.

It’s said that Ibsen based the character Nora on a real-life woman he knew named Laura.

Ibsen was Danish, and Nora has a long history of use in Scandinavia. It comes from Eleonora, but also nods to a masculine name meaning north. According to Nordic Names, the baby name Nora enjoyed quite a bit of use following A Doll’s House, becoming popular around the turn of the century in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Perhaps the name felt fresh and modern, just different enough for Ibsen’s world-challenging heroine.

INTERNATIONAL VARIANTS

The name includes a number of international forms, like:

• Annora, a phonetic take on Honora
• The Irish origin Noreen
• Italian elaboration Norina 
• Nori is a separate Japanese name, but it can also evolve as a Nora nickanme, as can Nory
• Nora also occurs as a nickname for international forms of Eleanor, like Leonor in Spanish; Ellinor in Scandinavian languages; and Eleonore in French and German, to name just a few

The spelling Norah with an H has never been as popular, but has a long history of use, too.

MORE FAMOUS WOMEN NAMED NORA

Given the widespread use of the name, it’s no surprise many famous women answer to Nora.

Novelist Dashiell Hammett gave us Nick and Nora Charles, the original husband-and-wife detective team.

Nick and Nora leapt from the pages of 1934’s The Thin Man to films, radio, television, and even a Broadway musical.  Plenty of other fictional couples were modeled after the duo, with their playful banter and mutual respect. 

And there’s something about saying Nick and Nora together – just ask the pajama company, or the Michael Cera-Kat Dennings 2008 movie, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

There’s also:

• The author James Joyce’s wife was named Nora. This tracks with Nora’s long use in Ireland. It doesn’t have a specific Irish origin, but Onora is the Irish equivalent of Honora.
• Charles Darwin’s granddaughter was Nora, later Lady Barlow. She studied botany at Cambridge and continued her grandfather’s work.
• Writer Nora Ephron created modern movie favorites, including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. 
• Singer-songwriter Norah Jones is also broadly familiar. Jones’ 2002 album Come Away With Me earned five Grammys, including Album of the Year. The daughter of Indian musician Ravi Shankar and American concert producer Sue Jones, the name is at home in both cultures.
• Comedian and actress Awkwafina was born Nora Lum. Her Comedy Central series Nora from Queens builds on her personal story.

HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME NORA?

The United States first lists baby name popularity data for the year 1880. It becomes more reliable as time goes by. But we can assume that the name Nora was popular in the late nineteeth century, since it routinely appeared in the US Top 100 back then.

The name fell in popularity for much of the twentieth century. It reached a low during the 1990s. While Nora has (almost) always been a Top 500 girls’ name, it had fallen out of use.

That changed during the early twenty-first century.

In the year 2000, the baby name Nora ranked a chilly #502.

That’s when parents rediscovered the name.

One possible reason? The year 2000 was the year the biopic Nora debuted, telling the story of James Joyce and his wife, Nora Barnacle. While it was an indie Irish film with minimal reach, perhaps it lent the baby name Nora some literary sheen.

Nora – and the spelling Norah – also fit nicely with favorites from the late 1990s and early 2000s, like Sarah and Emma.

And then along came Norah Jones, raising the name’s profile even further.

It’s an irresistible combination – a name at once classic and culture-spanning, nickname-proof but distinctive sounding, too.

The baby name Nora climbed to #83 by 2013, and reached #29 in 2017. It hasn’t slowed down yet. As of 2023, Nora ranks #25 – the highest showing yet.

It’s popular throughout the English-speaking world, including Australia and England, across Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, France, and other French-speaking countries, too.

Norah comes in at #201.

SPIRITED AND CLASSIC NAME

If you’re looking for a baby’s name that feels classic and capable, Nora fits.

It’s a smart choice, one that embodies plenty of strength and creativity, but also offers roots and connection to traditional names at the same time. Nora carries an international passport, working across many languages with ease.

No surprise parents have embraced this brief, bright, and thorughly appealing name.

What do you think of the baby name Nora?

Originally published on December 7, 2008, this post was substantially revised and re-posted on December 23, 2013; April 24, 2021; and April 18, 2025.