Blanca

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Girl · Germanic, through Late Latin

Blanca

Say it: BLAHN-kah

Try it with your surname

Meaning

'White', from a Germanic word (blank) borrowed into Late Latin and the Romance languages.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Common in Navarre and Castile from the 12th century and never fully out of use.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1990s

In the United States

25,119 babies given this name since 1910
At its height in 1990, about 1 in 2,900 girls
97 babies in 2020

Through the ages

Used by

Spanish Catalan Portuguese Mexican Central American Andean Argentine Caribbean

The family of the name

Catalan	Blanca
Portuguese	Branca
French	Blanche
Italian	Bianca

Famous bearers

Blanche of Castile, queen of France
Blanca I, queen regnant of Navarre

Names worth a look

EveGirlFrom Hebrew Ḥawwah, which Genesis 3:20 connects with ḥay 'living'. The link to 'life' is the accepted reading,…Biblical · peak 2018

ElviraGirlBelieved to be of Visigothic origin, but its elements are not known with any certainty.Early Medieval · peak 1909

CatalinaGirlSpanish form of Katherine, a Greek name of uncertain meaning later linked with katharos 'pure'.Middle Ages · peak 2020

XimenaGirlA medieval Spanish name of uncertain origin, possibly a feminine of Ximeno (perhaps a form of Simeon) or of Basque…Middle Ages · peak 2016

SusannaGirlHebrew Shoshannah, 'lily' (or lotus), probably from an Egyptian word for the lotus flower.Biblical · peak 1886

JuanaGirlFeminine of Juan, from Hebrew Yohanan 'God is gracious'.Middle Ages · peak 1904

BlancheGirlFrom Old French blanche 'white, fair'.Middle Ages · peak 1889

BelindaGirlUncertain. It appears in English literature from the late 17th century and was used by Alexander Pope in The Rape of…Revolutions · peak 1961 · forgotten

Where this comes from

Royal and noble genealogies
National birth statistics of European countries source
Parish baptism registers
National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.