Nandini
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Meaning
daughter in Sanskrit; name of the heroine of Rabindranath Tagore's play Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders)
The story
Nandini means daughter in Sanskrit, with older sources also using the form for figures such as Durga, Ganga, and a fabulous cow. Bengali literature gives the name a fierce stage life. In Rabindranath Tagore's Red Oleanders, Nandini is the heroine and the red oleander becomes her recurring image. A study from West Bengal's open university describes her power to love, laugh, sing, and finally resist a system that reduces people to numbers and classes. Individual names stand against that machinery. There is a sly detail behind the title too: the study cites Tagore saying he had considered Nandini and Yakshapuri before settling on Raktakarabi, Red Oleanders. The heroine is a literary association, not a personality forecast for a child, and the Sanskrit root should not be recast as Bengali etymology. Still, name and play meet beautifully here: a daughter word carried by the character who insists that people remain more than their numbers.
How popular is Nandini around the world?
In the United States, 109 babies were named Nandini between 2020 and 2025. In Canada, 5 girls named Nandini were born in 2024, ranked 3,457th among girls that year.
Nandini is on the official records of the United States, Canada and England and Wales.
United States
1 in 200,000
In the United States, 109 babies were named Nandini between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Nandini has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Canada
1 in 73,000
In Canada, 5 girls named Nandini were born in 2024, ranked 3,457th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
England and Wales
1 in 150,000
In England and Wales, 4 girls named Nandini were born in 2025, ranked 4,867th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Austria
last on record 2013
Nandini is not on the 2025 record for Austria, which publishes every first name down to a single birth, so the name was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
South Australia
last on record 2014
Nandini is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Nandini
Most people given the name Nandini in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Nandini deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Nandini truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Nandini fits with your family’s names and surname.
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