Nando
A Spanish diminutive form of Fernando, meaning "daring adventurer".
Name Census estimates that about 40 living Americans carry the first name Nando. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nando today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nando births was 2023 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nando. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Nando. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
40
~ 1 in 8,568,858 Americans
Peak year
2023
9 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,580
Tracked since 1967
Census
Nando in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 283 people with the first name Nando, which placed it at #30,644 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#30,644
National first-name rank
People counted
283
283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
59.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nando
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nando is Hispanic at 59.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nando described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nando at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino59.7% · 169
- White28.3% · 80
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 15
- Black or African American3.5% · 10
- Two or more races1.8% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 4
Popularity
Nando: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nando from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 25 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nando by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nando during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nando
Nando is a name with Spanish origins, derived from the Germanic name Ferdinand or Fernando. It is a diminutive or shortened form of the name, often used as a nickname or pet name.
The name Ferdinand is thought to have originated from the Germanic elements "fridu" meaning peace and "nanth" meaning courage or daring. It was a popular name among the Visigoths, a Germanic people who ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula in the early Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Ferdinand was Ferdinand I of León and Castile, who ruled from 1037 to 1065. He was an important figure in the Reconquista, the centuries-long struggle to drive the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.
Another notable Ferdinand was Ferdinand II of Aragon, who reigned from 1479 to 1516. He was known as Ferdinand the Catholic, and his marriage to Isabella I of Castile united Spain into a single kingdom. Together, they sponsored Christopher Columbus's voyages to the Americas.
In the 16th century, Ferdinand I of Austria, also known as Ferdinand the Catholic, was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1556 to 1564. He played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation and the spread of Catholicism in Europe.
The name Nando gained popularity in Portugal and Brazil, where it is a common nickname for Fernando. One famous bearer of the name was Nando Reis, a Brazilian singer-songwriter born in 1963, known for his work with the rock band Titãs.
Another notable Nando was Nando Parrado, a Uruguayan air force officer who survived the Andes flight disaster in 1972. He and a companion trekked for 10 days through the Andes Mountains to find help for the other survivors.
People
Nando + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nando as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nando: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nando?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 40 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nando going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 8,568,858 US residents.
Is Nando a common name?
We classify Nando as "Very Rare". It ranks above 51% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 41 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nando most popular?
The single biggest year for Nando was 2023, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nando is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nando in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 283 people with the name Nando, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,644 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nando in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nando?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nando leans strongly male. 274 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 8 female bearers (2.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nando?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nando is Hispanic at 59.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nando most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Nando in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.7% (169 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nando in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nando a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nando in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nando still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nando in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nando can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Nando?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.