Nava Name Meaning, Origin & Popularity

About Nava

Short, sweet, and sparky, Nava has been slowly climbing up the US popularity charts in recent years, owing perhaps to its similarity to Nova, Ava, Navy, and Nevaeh. Used quietly but consistently from the 80s onwards, Nava was given to nearly 80 girls in 2023.

A name with two separate origins, in Hebrew, it comes from the word navah meaning "beautiful, comely" or "comfortable". In Spanish, it is a place-inspired name, used as either a variation of Navarra meaning "from Navarre" or as a nod to Nava - the name of cities in both Spain and Mexico. Likely deriving from the Basque word naba
, Nava is theorized to mean "plain or valley next to the mountain", and is used as both a given name and a surname.

Mexican actress Nava Mau, known for starring in the dark British comedy Baby Reindeer is a notable bearer and may have chosen her name to honor her mother, Rae-Ellen Levy Navarro.

Pronounced NAH-vuh.

As of October 2026, Nava ranked #2231 in US births in 2025 SSA.

Editor: Sophie Kihm

Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.

Editorial policy

Popularity & trends

US popularity — history

US rank, lower is more popular · SSA data 2014–2025

Actual · SSA

20142025

18802025

Data table

Year	US rank	Births	Per million
2014	#3,129	53	29.7
2015	#2,578	70	39.2
2016	#2,689	65	36.7
2017	#2,893	58	33.6
2018	#2,375	77	45.3
2019	#2,347	77	45.9
2020	#2,519	69	42.7
2021	#2,697	64	39
2022	#2,625	67	40.9
2023	#2,347	78	48.6
2024	#2,677	65	40.1
2025	#2,231	83	51.6