Given name & surname
Bianca
“a shining, fair-skinned woman”
Bianca is an Italian name meaning “white,” with a place in two of Shakespeare’s plays.
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Italian interpretation is “a shining, fair-skinned woman.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Italian.
The story
Shakespeare used Bianca in two Italian settings: she is Katharina’s sister in The Taming of the Shrew and another character in Othello. These literary associations sit alongside the name’s straightforward Italian word origin.
Bianca through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 77,759
- 195 boys · 77,564 girls
- Most popular year
- 1991
- 3,857 babies
- 2025
- 594
- #500 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −13%
- Easing
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 594 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 500 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 12.6% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 3,844 in 1991. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for girls with this name (74). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 72,256 as a first name in 2020; 690 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.
Bianca’s family of names
In Portuguese usage, Bianca has a diminutive in BIA. Bianca shares a linguistic root with Blanca. In French usage, Bianca has a related form in Blanche.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Bianca has relatives in 11 languages. Lines run from its Italian roots to each of them.
9 related names in 11 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 13
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Blancavariant · Spanish
- Biadiminutive · Portuguese
- Blanchevariant · French, English
- Biankavariant · German, Slovak
- Bianncalikely variant
- Bianccalikely variant
- Blankavariant · German, Polish
- Blanchvariant · English
Show 5 moreShow fewer
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Bianca
- Bianca AndreescuCanadian tennis playerborn 2000
- Bianca Maria SforzaHoly Roman Empress, Presumptive crown princess of Hungary (1472-1510)
- Bianca LawsonAmerican actressborn 1979
- Bianca BelairAmerican professional wrestlerborn 1989
- Bianca Maria ViscontiDuchess of Milan from 1450 to 14681425–1468
- Bianca KnightAmerican sprinterborn 1989
- Bianca JaggerNicaraguan-British human rights activist and socialiteborn 1945
- Blanche of AnjouQueen consort of Aragon (1283-1310)
- Bianca KajlichAmerican actressborn 1977
Characters named Bianca: Bianca Castafiore (fictional opera singer in The Adventures of Tintin).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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If you love Bianca, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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