Nanette
A French diminutive of Anne, meaning grace or favor.
Name Census estimates that about 11,947 living Americans carry the first name Nanette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nanette today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nanette births was 1957 (772 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nanette. 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.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,690 Americans
Peak year
1957
772 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,905
Tracked since 1892
Popularity
Nanette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nanette from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 5,670 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nanette 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 Nanette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nanettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Nanette, while Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 292 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nanette
Nanette is a French feminine diminutive form of the name Anne, which is derived from the Hebrew name Hannah meaning "grace". The name Nanette emerged during the Middle Ages in France, around the 12th or 13th century, as a pet form of Anne.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Nanette can be found in the 14th-century French fabliau "The Jongleur's Wife" by Philippe de Remi, where a character named Nanette is mentioned. The name was also popularized in France during the Renaissance period, particularly in the 16th century.
In literature, one of the most famous references to the name Nanette is in the 1819 opera "La Fille du Régiment" by Gaetano Donizetti, where the character Marie is affectionately called Nanette. Another notable literary reference is in the 1925 play "No, No, Nanette" by Frank Mandel and Otto Harbach, which was later adapted into a successful Broadway musical.
Some notable historical figures with the first name Nanette include:
1. Nanette Lepore (born 1964), an American fashion designer known for her contemporary women's clothing line.
2. Nanette Fabray (1920-2018), an American actress, singer, and dancer who won a Tony Award and two Emmy Awards.
3. Nanette Burstein (born 1970), an American film director and producer known for her documentaries and feature films.
4. Nanette Workman (1945-2022), an American singer and actress who had a successful career on Broadway and in television.
5. Nanette Asimov (born 1949), an American journalist and author, best known for her work as a science writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.
While the name Nanette was quite popular in France during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it has since become less common, though it continues to be used as a diminutive form of Anne in several Romance language-speaking countries.
People
Nanette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nanette 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
Nanette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nanette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,947 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nanette 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 28,690 US residents.
Is Nanette a common name?
We classify Nanette as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,888 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nanette most popular?
The single biggest year for Nanette was 1957, when 772 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nanette is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Nanette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nanette in the SSA data are female. 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.
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.