Nina Dobrev's Real Name: Nikolina Dobreva

Quick answer: Nina Dobrev was born Nikolina Dobreva on January 9, 1989, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Nina is a short form of Nikolina. Dobrev is the masculine form of her Bulgarian surname; Dobreva is the feminine form. Her family moved to Toronto when she was 2. She became known on Degrassi: The Next Generation and starred as Elena Gilbert on The CW's The Vampire Diaries (Library of Congress; Harper's Bazaar).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Dobrev, Nina, 1989-." Its citation reads "Nina Dobrev, actress; b. January 9, 1989 in Sofia, Bulgaria; birth name: Nikolina Constantinova Dobreva." Another LOC citation notes that she lived in Toronto. Wiki databases give her middle name, a Bulgarian patronymic, as Kamenova rather than Constantinova. Because the two sources disagree, this page uses only her first name and surname in the title.

In Bulgarian naming, women's surnames usually take an -a ending, so Dobreva is the feminine counterpart of Dobrev. She uses the shorter masculine form professionally.

Her family emigrated from Bulgaria to Toronto when she was 2, Harper's Bazaar reported in 2017, and they struggled financially for years. "We didn't come from money," she said. "In the beginning, we lived with another family in a one-bedroom apartment. My parents had to work really hard." The family shopped at a thrift store, Value Village, which her mother jokingly called "Versace." She later attended a real Versace show and sat in the front row.

Career highlights

Dobrev spent four seasons on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation before moving to The Vampire Diaries. On the supernatural series she played the heroine, Elena Gilbert, and her look-alike, Katherine Pierce, for six seasons. She left the show in 2015. Harper's Bazaar noted that the series had a "rabid fan base around the world." During one hiatus, she backpacked alone through Europe and East Asia without being recognized.

After the series, she told the magazine, "I don't want to play a teenager anymore." In 2017 she starred as a medical student in the supernatural thriller Flatliners. She has also appeared in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and in the comedy series Fam. Her social media is known for adventure clips. "My rule of thumb is, I'll try anything once," she said.

Name notes for searchers

Nina is a diminutive of Nikolina. Dobreva is the feminine Bulgarian surname, and Dobrev is the masculine form she uses on screen. Her middle name is recorded two ways: Constantinova by the Library of Congress and Kamenova by wiki databases. Verify it before relying on either.