| Vera | Nadia | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Faith; true | hope |
| Origin | Slavic | slavic |
| Gender | Girl | Girl |
| Pronunciation | VEER-uh | NAH-dee-ah |
| Syllables | 2 | 3 |
| First appeared | 1880 | 1911 |
| Peak year | 1918 (3,923) | 2005 (1,923) |
| In 2025 | 1,482 | 531 |
| Trend | Rising | Declining |
Source: US Social Security Administration.
| Decade | Vera | Nadia |
|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 8,040 | 3,818 |
| 2010s | 9,052 | 9,868 |
| 2000s | 1,612 | 15,665 |
| 1990s | 869 | 7,134 |
| 1980s | 1,311 | 5,533 |
| 1970s | 2,258 | 3,076 |
| 1960s | 6,032 | 536 |
| 1950s | 11,041 | 355 |
| 1940s | 12,189 | 157 |
| 1930s | 18,023 | 166 |
| 1920s | 32,541 | 151 |
| 1910s | 28,289 | 97 |
| 1900s | 10,457 | 0 |
| 1890s | 6,377 | 0 |
| 1880s | 1,365 | 0 |
From the Slavic, “faith,” and echoing the Latin verus, “true.”
A Slavic name derived from Russian/Bulgarian Nadezhda, from Old Slavic for 'hope' (Proto-Slavic root naděja). Originally a diminutive of Nadezhda, it is widely used as a given name in its own right. Note: a separate Arabic name Nadiyyah ('tender, delicate') is sometimes conflated with it but is an unrelated root.
Vera is more popular than Nadia today: about 1,482 US babies were given the name Vera in 2025, compared with 531 named Nadia.
Vera means Faith; true (Slavic origin), while Nadia means hope (slavic origin).
In US records, Vera first appears in 1880 and Nadia in 1911, so Vera has the longer recorded history.