Given name & surname · also Hindi
Banu
“lady”
Banu is a surname from Hindi, ultimately from Romanian. It is used in English and Turkish.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Banu goes back to Persian بانو (bānū, bānō), meaning “lady.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Banu comes from Hindi, and ultimately from Romanian.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Hindi बानू, बानो, from Urdu بانو (bānū, bānō), from Persian بانو (bānū, bānō, “lady”), from Bengali বানু, from Romanian Banu.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2018. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Banu through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 12
- 0 boys · 12 girls
- Most popular year
- 2018
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #15,295 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 15,295 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for girls was 7 in 2018. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 361 as a first name in 2020; 820 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Banu’s family of names
In Turkish usage, Banu shares a linguistic root with the Bashkir form Баныу. Banu is a Roman-alphabet rendering of Бану. In English usage, Banu as a surname has a related form in Bano.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Banu has relatives in 3 languages. Lines run from its Romanian roots to each of them.
3 related names in 3 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Banu
- Banu MushtaqIndian writer and activist (born 1948)
- Banu AlkanTurkish actress of Bosniak origin (born 1958)
- Banu AvarTurkish journalist and author of Avar origin (born 1955)
- Banu GüvenTurkish journalist (born 1969)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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If you love Banu, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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