Norah
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Norah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. Recorded meaning: A female given name, a pseudo-Hebrew spelling of Nora, diminutive of Eleonora or Honora.
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 5.1K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 14K
- NGNigeria≈1 in 35K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 341 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.2K (inferred from the name graph)
23,775 people, 2020
Highest-authority source
Kenya, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A female given name, a pseudo-Hebrew spelling of Nora, diminutive of Eleonora or Honora.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Norah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 23,775 | 1 in 14K | 24K | Norah | 341 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.2K | — | Norah | 20 |
| CN China | — | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 109K | — | Norah | 15 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | — | Norah | 43 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈6,200 est. | ≈1 in 35K | — | Norah | 31 |
| TZ Tanzania | — | ≈4,800 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | Norah | 18 |
| SE Sweden | — | 827 | 1 in 12K | 827 | Norah | 21 |
| NO Norway | — | 510 | 1 in 11K | 1.7K | Norah | 13 |
| IE Ireland | #680 | ≈200 est. | ≈1 in 25K | — | Norah | 61 |
23,775 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Norah Elamb. 1878GBBritish suffragist (1878-1961)
- Princess Margaret of Connaughtb. 1882GBnot in their usual nameBritish princess; Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf (1882-1920)
- Norah Neilson Grayb. 1882GBBritish artist of the Glasgow School (1882-1931)
- Jane Arborb. 1903GBnot in their usual nameBritish novelist (1903–1994)
- Norah Loftsb. 1904GBBritish writer (1904–1983)
- Norah Baringb. 1905GBEnglish actress (1905-1985)
- Norah O'Donnellb. 1974USAmerican television journalist who is currently a senior correspondent on CBS News and contributing correspondent on 60 Minutes
- Norah Jonesb. 1979USAmerican musician (born 1979)
- Norah Jerutob. 1995KEKenyan female steeplechase runner
- Norah SadavaCACanadian theatre creator
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 87 sources across 47 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 250 | #81,574 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 199 | #92,358 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 180 | #94,227 |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Norah a male or female name?
- Norah is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Norah mean, and where does it come from?
- A female given name, a pseudo-Hebrew spelling of Nora, diminutive of Eleonora or Honora. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Norah?
- In the etymology graph, Eleanor, Ellie and Lenora are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Elnora and Honora.
- In which country does Norah have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 24 thousand people named Norah, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled norah.
- How common is the name Norah?
- In the United States, the national register counted 23,775 people named Norah in 2020, about 1 in 14 thousand residents.
- How common is Norah compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Norah is the 680th most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Norah?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/norahThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Norah” — the 680th most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.