Nina
/ˈniːnə/
"nina" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Nina” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #8,963) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #8,963
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A female given name in continuous use since the 19th century.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nina · Nina · English
Nina · rank #8,963 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,963
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH niche
Nearest frequency peer: niche (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “Nina”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- mock
mock
91,041 corpus weight
- necklace
necklace
91,040 corpus weight
- niche
niche
91,039 corpus weight
- Nina
Nina
91,038 corpus weight
- O'Brien
O'Brien
91,037 corpus weight
- obscure
obscure
91,036 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “Nina” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Nina |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈniːnə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #8,963 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “Nina”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for Nina is neighbouring look-alikes ("NN", "non", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun pronounced /ˈniːnə/. Frequency #8,963 among 1,534 “N” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for Nina, with forms such as "nian", "ninna", and "nnia". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NN", "non", "NSA", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed into English in the nineteenth century, apparently from several sources. Many borrowings are of Russian Ни́на (Nína), the name of a Georgian saint in the fourth century, also known as Nino, of obscure origin and meaning, possibly connected with the… The correct English form is Nina, spelled N-I-N-A.
Definition
- 1A female given name in continuous use since the 19th century.
- 2The Babylonian goddess of the watery deep, daughter of Ea.
- 3Ellipsis of Nina from Pasadena.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Nina appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The first three, Macklin, Lydia, and Randall, were the special ones. Even those names, we thought, showed greater imagination, greater involvement on our parents' part, than ours did: Nina, Mary, Sarah. Clearly by that time they had run out of gas. "Nina. Such a pretty, old-fashioned name. I hope you don't mind my saying that." "No; I'm glad you think so."
Etymology
Borrowed into English in the nineteenth century, apparently from several sources. Many borrowings are of Russian Ни́на (Nína), the name of a Georgian saint in the fourth century, also known as Nino, of obscure origin and meaning, possibly connected with the Assyrian king Ninus. Others are of an Italian short form of diminutives like Annina from Anna and Giovannina from Giovanna. Phonologically or orthographically similar names are present in several languages, including Afrikaans, Hindi, Italian, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and some Native American languages. In many of those, it is a nickname for names ending in -ina or -nina. (hidden message in crossword): After Nina Hirschfeld, the daughter of the American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld; her name was often concealed in his drawings.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- nian
- ninna
- nnia
- nnina
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Nina - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Nina", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).