Head to head · Girls' names
Alana vs Amira
#140 vs #132 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Amira is a whisker ahead (#132 vs #140 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Amira leads 4 measures of 6; Alana leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1930s: Alana #3927, Amira — — Alana higher
- 1940s: Alana #1442, Amira — — Alana higher
- 1950s: Alana #827, Amira — — Alana higher
- 1960s: Alana #746, Amira #6220 — Alana higher
- 1970s: Alana #540, Amira #3041 — Alana higher
- 1980s: Alana #350, Amira #1932 — Alana higher
- 1990s: Alana #313, Amira #1195 — Alana higher
- 2000s: Alana #193, Amira #636 — Alana higher
- 2010s: Alana #196, Amira #404 — Alana higher
- 2020s: Alana #184, Amira #185 — Alana higher
Alana stood higher in every recorded decade — 10 of 10.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Alana | Amira |
|---|---|---|
| 1930s | #3927 | — |
| 1940s | #1442 | — |
| 1950s | #827 | — |
| 1960s | #746 | #6220 |
| 1970s | #540 | #3041 |
| 1980s | #350 | #1932 |
| 1990s | #313 | #1195 |
| 2000s | #193 | #636 |
| 2010s | #196 | #404 |
| 2020s | #184 | #185 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Alana
Feminine form of Alan, whose own root is disputed; separately, a Hawaiian word for an offering
Two lines of explanation compete for Alan. One traces it to a Brythonic or Breton root and reads it as 'rock' or 'handsome'; the other connects it to the Alans, the Iranian steppe people some of whom settled in Gaul in late antiquity. Neither has won. Alongside that, Hawaiian has its own word alana, meaning an offering, which is a genuinely independent source for the same spelling — so an Alana in Hawaii and an Alana in Ohio may be carrying two different names that happen to look alike.
Alan (Breton) → Alain (French) → Alan (English) → Alana
How it traveled
Alan was a Breton favorite before it was an English one, and it crossed the Channel with the Breton lords who came in the train of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century. From there it settled into England and Scotland, took the form Alain in France and Alun in Wales, and kept going without a serious break for nine hundred years.
Amira
"Princess" in Arabic; "treetop" or "utterance" in Hebrew
Two separate names share this spelling. The Arabic أميرة is the feminine of amīr, "prince, commander" — the same root that gives English emir and the name of the United Arab Emirates. The Hebrew אֲמִירָה comes from a root meaning both the topmost bough of a tree and the act of saying something. Neither reading is a variant of the other; which one applies depends on the family.
amīr (Arabic, "commander, prince") → amīra → Amira / Ameera / Amirah
How it traveled
The Arabic line is the older and wider one: from the root ʼ-m-r, "to command," comes amīr, the title borne by commanders and princes across the medieval Islamic world, and from it the feminine amīra. The word traveled into European languages as emir long before the name did, so English speakers already knew the sound in another shape.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Alana
uh-LAH-nuh
Also said uh-LAN-uh, with the vowel of 'can'. Both are in real use in the US, so whichever you pick will need stating now and then.
- Lana — The most natural short form, and a well-established given name in its own right.
- Allie — Informal; shared with Allison and Alexandra, and also used as a standalone name.
- Ally — Same short form, the other common spelling; informal, mostly among friends and family.
- Lanie — An affectionate family form rather than one used on paperwork.
- Also Al.
Amira
uh-MEER-uh
Stress on the middle syllable. Arabic and Bosnian speakers often say it closer to ah-MEE-rah, with a fuller first and final vowel; both are the same name, and English speakers usually manage it on the first hearing.
- Mira — The most common short form, and a full given name in its own right in several languages.
- Mimi — Informal, family-side; rarely used outside the household.
- Ami — Informal; spelled Ami or Amy depending on the family's preference.
- Ria — Informal short form taken from the ending; also stands alone as a name in Dutch and Indonesian.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Alana if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Alana from Amira.
Choose Amira if you want…
- a name on the way upup 151 places on the charts in five years
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Alana
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds in every language that uses it — no silent letters, no ambiguous consonants.
- Carries two ready-made short forms, Lana and Allie, both of which already stand alone as names.
- Works unchanged in English, Spanish and Portuguese, which matters in a household or a family tree that spans more than one.
To consider
- Two pronunciations circulate — uh-LAH-nuh and uh-LAN-uh — and neither is wrong. Expect to correct people occasionally, and to hear both from teachers over the years.
- The near-identical spellings Alanna, Alannah, Alaina and Elana all exist, so the name will be spelled back to you incorrectly from time to time.
- It is climbing steadily rather than sitting still, so her class may hold more Alanas than the current picture suggests — though nothing near the level where a surname initial becomes necessary.
Amira
Strengths
- Works in Arabic, Bosnian, Hebrew and English without translation or reshaping — one spelling that travels across several languages.
- Reads correctly from the page for most English speakers on first sight, with no silent letters and no ambiguous consonants.
- Has ready-made short forms: Mira for everyday use, Mimi and Ami within the family.
To consider
- Ameera, Amirah and Amyra all circulate, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often. Picking one form early and sticking to it saves the most trouble.
- It is on a clear upward path in the US, so a child born now will likely meet more Amiras as a teenager than as a toddler.
- The sound sits close to Amara, Almira, Samira and Mira, and mix-ups among those are the usual small annoyance rather than anything worse.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Alana and Amira in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Alana and Amira?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- About to go mainstream: next year's top-100
- The sweet spot: familiar but not everywhere
- Five-letter names, the comfortable middle
- all guides
Every list here names both Alana and Amira — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Alana or Amira — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Alana or Amira?
- Amira, in 2025: Amira ranked #132 with 2,168 babies; Alana ranked #140 with 2,085 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Alana or Amira?
- Amira. Over the last five years Alana moved up 66 places; Amira moved up 151 places.
- Which is the older name, Alana or Amira?
- Alana entered the US charts in 1930; Amira entered the US charts in 1963. On the American record, Alana is the older name.
- How many people are named Alana and Amira?
- About 66,500 people named Alana are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 25,500 people named Amira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Alanas or Amiras in the classroom?
- Alana will almost certainly be the only one in school. Amira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Alana, Amira and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap