Nova

In November 1572 the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was walking home in the evening when he looked up at the constellation Cassiopeia and saw a new star — brighter than Venus, suddenly visible where no star had been before — and he coined a Latin phrase for the phenomenon: stella nova, new star. (We now know it was a Type Ia supernova, and the remnant cloud is still expanding 450 years later.) Four and a half centuries later, American parents borrowed the adjective alone.

Nova is Latin for new (the feminine form of novus), and the word is also still the technical term astronomers use for a star that suddenly brightens by several magnitudes — the name carries both newness and fire, both novelty and explosion. The name arrived on the American charts almost out of nowhere: outside the SSA top 1000 in 2010, inside the top 100 in 2017, and at rank thirty-nine in the most recent data — one of the steepest debuts of any girls' name in the modern charting era. The lift owes something to a broader celestial-name revival (Luna, Stella, Aurora, Nova), something to PBS's NOVA science series, something to the simple structural beauty of two open syllables ending on a vowel.

Famous bearers include Nova McKenzie, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara's daughter (born 2020, allegedly named River — but Nova has appeared in many recent celebrity baby announcements). Two syllables, open and luminous — NO-va. Pairs beautifully with celestial or short modern middles (Nova Rose, Nova Mae, Nova Wren). Nicknames are scarce. Unisex-leaning, slightly futuristic, built for a child you suspect will not be quiet.