Nancy

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled ננסי in FR France, IL Israel.

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

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 27 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

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

• Spanish given name3.1M records spelled Nancy18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Mexico, Peru

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Näncy, Náncy, Nänčy, Nåncy, Nänçy

• Swahili given name256K records spelled Nancy3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kenya, United States, Philippines, Nigeria

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

  Also written Nancy'

• French given name169K records spelled Nancy3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Belgium

  Also written Nançy

• Polish given name50K records spelled Nancy48 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Croatia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Russian

  Also written Nensi, Nansi, Нэнси, Нанси, Ненсі

• Indonesian given name28K records spelled Nancy4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

  Also written 'Nancy

• Greek given name20K records spelled Nancy4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Nansi, Nâncy, Νανσι

85 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●

Nancy is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In French, From the French place name Nancy; later used as a given name.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In English, Pet form of Anne, now sometimes used as an independent name.

  as a name·Irish first names

• Of uncertain origin. From the 18th century it is clearly used as a pet form of pAnn (see Nan)}, but it may originally have been a similar formation deriving from the common medieval given name Annis, a vernacular form of Agnes. Nowadays it is an independent name, and was especially popular in America __ between about 1920 and 1960.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, An effeminate man, especially a homosexual.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Nancy är ursprungligen en engelsk smekform till Anne (→ Ann). Som många andra engelska förnamn var det populärt i Sverige runt förra sekelskiftet. En känd litterär gestalt är Nancy i Charles Dickens roman Oliver Twist (1838). I Sverige har namnet blivit känt genom Elsie Johanssons (1931–2025) romantrilogi om Nancy (1996–2001).

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Nancy Reaganb. 1921USFirst Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989
• Nancy Kellyb. 1921USAmerican actress (1921–1995)
• Nancy Olsonb. 1928USAmerican actress
• Nancy Pelosib. 1940USAmerican politician (born 1940)
• Nancy Sinatrab. 1940USAmerican singer and actress (born 1940)
• Nancy Meyersb. 1949USAmerican film director, producer and screenwriter
• Nancy Allenb. 1950USAmerican actress
• Nan Goldinb. 1953USnot in their usual nameAmerican photographer (born 1953)
• Nancy Cartwrightb. 1957USAmerican actress
• Nancy J. Currie-Greggb. 1958USAmerican engineer, army officer, astronaut, and professor

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).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,569 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Nancy?

We estimate roughly 863 thousand people bear Nancy (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Nancy have the most bearers?

We estimate about 772 thousand people bear Nancy in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled nancy.

Where is Nancy most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Nancy is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 311 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Nancy compared with other names?

In the United States, Nancy is the 53rd most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Nancy a male or female name?

Nancy is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Nancy mean?

Recorded meaning: English diminutive of Nan, a hypocoristic of Anne or Hannah.