Nancy

What Nancy means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Nancy yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note More popular in England & Wales than the US: #78 vs #965 in 2025 Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Nancy?

US: Falling: down from #812 in 2015. England & Wales: Steady: #71 in 2015, #78 now.

Biggest US share so far: 1947, when 32,445 girls got the name (#7 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 6,065 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 419 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 994 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in WI (0.54 per 1,000 girls), PA (0.49 per 1,000 girls), AL (0.38 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Nancy is #965 in the US and #78 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Nancy were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Nansi0 US · 41 E&W
• Nanci0 US · 5 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Nancy

Girls

• Sara#198Variant of Sarah, meaning “masters, princes”^*
• Cassandra#630Editor’s note Down from #512 in 2015 to #630 in 2025 in the US
• Veronica#427Form of Berenice, meaning “bringer of victory”^*
• Christina#770Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1985, with 16,600 babies; 352 in 2025
• Angela#408“messenger, angel”^*
• Kathryn#729Variant of Catherine, possibly meaning “each of the two”^*

For a brother

• Dennis#707“follower of (the wine god) Dionysus”^*
• Nicholas#112“victory + people”^*
• Timothy#203“to honour + god”^*
• Christopher#68“carrier of Christ”^*
• Steven#271“crown, wreath”^*
• Stephen#383“crown, wreath”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Greek, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Nancy’s. Rank is US 2025.