The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Nina!

Comments and insights on the name Nina: | Edit

We named our new daughter Nina, and have had nothing but positive responses in her first six months of life. Everyone seems to know the name (how to spell it, how to say it), and all we get are compliments. At the same time, there doesn't seem to be any particular preconception tied to the sound of the name, making it a nice wide-open space for our Nina to make the most of. We looked for a name that would suit a baby, a toddler, a school-aged kid, a teen, a young adult, etc etc. And we feel we've chosen well. It's a name that seems equally appropriate for a scientist, a Supreme Court justice, a punk rock bass player, or whatever she wants to be...

What I like about my name, Nina, is that it is so international. I am 31 and over my life time I have met Nina's from Russia, German, Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico and even Vietnam. I love to study other cultures and international folks seem to open up more b/c it seems familiar to them. It's also a name people remember b/c not everyone has it. I always here, "I knew a Nina once..." and the occasional 'Nina, Pinta Santa Maria' :)

Personal experiences with the name Nina: | Edit

Sometimes pronounced with a long 'I' sound..."Nine-uh"

The only time anyone misspelled my name was once, when someone wrote Neena.

Nicknames for Nina: | Edit

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Meanings and history of the name Nina: | Edit

Nina also means little girl in Spanish. It's a very popular Spanish name, although it doesn't look like it in the top 100 hundred list for any of the hispanic countries.

Nina is also a Hindi name meaning "pretty eyes."

...and the name of a Babylonian goddess
...and a nickname for names ending in -nina, like Antonina and Penina.

Famous real-life people named Nina: | Edit

Nina Garcia, fashion director of Marie-Claire, formerly of Elle; judge of reality TV show "Project Runway"
Nina Ricci (born Maria Nielli), French-Italian fashion designer
Nina Hagen, German avant-garde singer
Nina Beilina, Russian violinist, laureate of the Enescu, Long-Thibaud and Tchaikovsky competitions
Nina Dobrev, Canadian actress (Degrassi: The Next Generation; The Vampire Diaries)
Nina Foch, Dutch-American actress
Nina Persson, Swedish lead singer of The Cardigans
Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon), musician and civil rights activist
Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's award-winning legal affairs correspondent
Nina Badrić, Croatian singer

Nina in song, story & screen: | Edit

New York Times' illustrator Al Hirschfeld hid the name Nina (his daughter's name) in most of his caricatures. Readers of the newspaper would delight in counting the "Ninas" in every one of his drawings in the Sunday NY Times.
"Nina Pretty Ballerina", song by ABBA
Nina, a character in the PlayStation role-playing game Suikoden II
Nina Ash, from the American television series Angel
Nina Bibikova, from the novel The Man from Barbarossa
Nina Brown, from the BBC soap opera EastEnders
Nina Caliente, character from the Sims series of games.
Nina Callas, from The Clique series of books
Nina Campbell, from the American sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun
Nina Cassady, from the American drama Law & Order
Nina Cortex, from the Crash Bandicoot series of games
Nina Cortlandt, from the soap opera All My Children
Nina Einstein, from the anime Code Geass
Nina Harris, from the BBC soap opera EastEnders
Nina Jarvis, from the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400
Nina Myers, a terrorism analyst in the TV series 24
Nina Sakura, from Ultra Maniac
Nina Sayers, character from the 2010 movie "Black Swan"
Nina Sharp, Chief Operating Officer of Massive Dynamic in the TV series Fringe
Nina Tucker, from the Australian soap opera Neighbours
Nina Van Horn, from the American sitcom Just Shoot Me!
Nina Wáng, from the anime Mai Otome
Nina Webster, from the soap opera The Young and the Restless
Nina Williams, a fictional assassin from the Tekken series of games
Nina Windia, from the Breath of Fire series of games
Nina Yamada, from Mamotte! Lollipop