Entry № 6983 · Latin origin

Monica Monica — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MON-ih-kah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Latin
Meaning
"Advisor (Saint Monica, mother of Augustine; Monica Bellucci)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Medieval (Latin)

A name that means "advisor (saint monica, mother of augustine; monica bellucci)".

Monica is of disputed etymology — possibly Berber from her North African origin, or from the Latin monere ("to advise, counsel"). Saint Monica (c. 332-387) — Berber Christian mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo whose decades of prayer and weeping are credited with her son's conversion to Christianity at age 32. Their conversation at Ostia just before her death — described in Book IX of Augustine's Confessions — is among the most famous mother-son scenes in Christian literature.

Advisor. Augustine's mother prayed thirty years for his conversion; their farewell at Ostia is among Christianity's most famous scenes.

The name in its native script.

Monica
Transliteration
Monica
Pronunciation
/ ˈmɒn.ɪ.kə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Monica stands.

Monica does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Monicas before her.

Real people
Saint Monica
Mother of Saint Augustine.
c. 332 – 387
Monica Bellucci
Italian actress.
born 1964
Monica Seles
Yugoslav-American tennis champion.
born 1973
In fiction
Monica Geller
Friends.
1994

Names connected to Monica.

The number behind Monica.

1

The Leader

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Monica reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.