Nieves

Girl · Spanish

Nieves

Say it: NYEH-bes

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Spanish 'snows', from Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, Our Lady of the Snows.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Especially common in 19th- and 20th-century Spain.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1920s

In the United States

1,581 babies given this name since 1901
At its height in 1925, about 1 in 52,900 girls
Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020

Through the ages

Used by

The family of the name

Catalan	Neus
Portuguese	Neves
Basque	Edurne

Names worth a look

ClementinaGirlDerived from Clemens 'merciful, mild'.Renaissance · peak 1908

HortensiaGirlFeminine of Hortensius, probably from hortus 'garden'.Rome · peak 1928 · forgotten

IgnaciaGirlFeminine of Ignacio, from the Roman family name Egnatius, of uncertain (possibly Etruscan) origin; the link to Latin…Colonial · peak 1904 · forgotten

RufinaGirlFeminine of Rufinus, from Rufus 'red, red-haired'.Rome · peak 1910 · forgotten

FlorentinaGirlFrom Latin Florentinus, from florens 'flourishing, blooming'.Early Medieval · peak 1905 · forgotten

EncarnaciónGirlSpanish 'incarnation', from the feast of the Incarnation.Colonial · forgotten

NivesGirlFrom Latin nives 'snows', after the Marian title Our Lady of the Snows (Madonna della Neve).Modern · forgotten

Where this comes from

Calendars of saints and name days
National birth statistics of European countries source
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.