Novalynn is a modern American combination of Nova, the Latin word for "new" and the name for a suddenly bright star, with the -lynn ending from the Welsh word for "lake". It belongs to the wave of Nova names, next to Novalee and Novah, that followed Nova's rise into the top 100. Novalynn was essentially unused before 2010, has climbed steadily since 2015 and reaches number 1755 among girls' names in 2025, its highest rank so far.