Nora started as a short form of Honora or Eleanor; through Honora it means "honor", and through Eleanor it shares the sense of "light". Ibsen's play A Doll's House and the writer Nora Ephron gave it a literary ring. Nora stood at number 502 in 2000, reached the top 100 in 2013 and ranks twentieth in 2025, its best rank since the 1920s.