Nunu

given name · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/nunu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Nunu is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Africa than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • ZASouth Africa≈1 in 18K(inferred from the name graph)
  • TZTanzania≈1 in 20K
  • BDBangladesh≈1 in 87K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Nunu itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

South Africa (inferred from the name graph)

≈3,200 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
44 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 18K (inferred from the name graph)

South Africa, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

NunuLatin(measured from records)
নুনBengali(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Nunu 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.

Where Nunu is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
ZA South Africa≈3,200 est.≈1 in 18K—Nunu5
TZ Tanzania≈2,900 est.≈1 in 20K—Nunu6
BD Bangladesh≈1,900 est.≈1 in 87K—Nunu12
US United States968as Non1 in 344K3.4KNunu44
NG Nigeria≈420 est.≈1 in 510K—Nunu5
DZ Algeria≈210 est.≈1 in 203Klisted—1
MY Malaysia≈140 est.≈1 in 234K—Nunu7
ES Spain341 in 1.5M47—1

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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal). 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).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Nunu is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Georgian given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Georgia, United States, Italy, Türkiye

    Also written ნუნუ, Nünü

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Nūnū

  • Indonesian given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, United States

    Also written Nunù

  • English given name12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, South Africa, India, Nigeria

    Languages: English, Dutch, Afrikaans

    Also written Nu-Nu, Ñuñu, Nunù, Nünū, Ñùnü

  • Spanish given name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Spain, Argentina, South Africa

    Also written Nu-Nu, Ñuñu, Nunú

  • French given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, South Africa, India

    Also written Nûnu, Núnu, Nùnù, Nunù, Ňuňu

56 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Nunu is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In lua, ancient* Generally refers only to persons^

    as a wordGrammar and Dictionary of the Buluba-Lulua Language

  • In Hawaiian, Lānaʻi form of lunu (“greed”)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In klw, banyan (tree)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In apb, shadow of persons, reflection, likeness, carvings, soul, consciousness; a new set of gongs is said to be the _nunu_ of the old set

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

  • In apb, to quake, of ground; to be loose, unstable, of a post; earthquake

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

  • In aia, bare, stripped of leaves; lose leaves, take off ornaments

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

194019501960Nunu Gabunia, b. 1941Nunu Abashydze, b. 1955Nunu Geladze, b. 1955

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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

Informalनमस्ते Nunu जी,Hi Nunu, (English)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 24 sources across 13 countries.

Official registers attesting Nunu
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020279#27,122
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202060#27,122
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—35#17,005
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—34#38,338

Reference works 3

  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)

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 Nunu a male or female name?
Nunu is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
How do you pronounce Nunu?
A machine transcription gives /nunu/ (IPA) for Hindi.
In which country does Nunu have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 3.2 thousand people named Nunu in South Africa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nunu.
How common is the name Nunu?
In Spain, the national register counted 34 people named Nunu, about 1 in 1.5 million residents.

What do you want to know about Nunu?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nunu

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

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, “Nunu”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Nunu parses inside a full name →