Northern Virginia’s beloved nickname Nova is gaining notoriety of its own in the baby name world.
Nova is the fastest rising the baby name in Virginia right now, Axios recently reported. In 2022 alone, a whopping 5,885 baby girls were given the name in the U.S., 163 of whom hailed from the state, according to the Social Security Administration.
While Nova is a gender-neutral name, it ranked as the 25th most popular for girls in Virginia in 2022. Topping the list last year were Charlotte, Olivia, and Emma for girls. For boys, Liam, Noah, and James were the favorites.
Local reputation aside, the word Nova stems from Latin and means “new.” Nova also refers to an illuminating astronomical event: a star that bursts with incredibly bright light, illuminating for a short time before it dims back into the sky where it can no longer be seen by the naked eye, according to BabyCenter.
This isn’t the name’s first time in the spotlight, though it is its biggest rise in popularity to date. The name stayed tucked in in the lower half of the top 1,000 names for girls throughout the early 1900s, dropping off the list completely by the 1940s, according to U.S. Social Security records.
Nova finally made its reappearance in 2011 and has been on the rise ever since, first breaking into the top 100 in 2017. In 2021 and 2022, the name ranked 32nd for girls in the U.S. For boys, the name ranked 883rd in 2022. Nationwide in 2022, there were 267 boys named Nova.
Feature image courtesy Africa/stock.adobe.com
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