Head to head · Girls' names
Lana vs Logan
#406 vs #402 in 2025
Logan is a whisker ahead (#402 vs #406 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Logan is stepping back from its peak, Lana is holding its place on the charts. On momentum, Lana has the edge.
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, Lana leads 3 measures of 6; Logan 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
- 1880s: Lana #950, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1890s: Lana #1104, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1900s: Lana #1486, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1910s: Lana #1922, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1920s: Lana #1826, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1930s: Lana #1872, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1940s: Lana #220, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1950s: Lana #293, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1960s: Lana #315, Logan — — Lana higher
- 1970s: Lana #414, Logan #5629 — Lana higher
- 1980s: Lana #568, Logan #1245 — Lana higher
- 1990s: Lana #942, Logan #355 — Logan higher
- 2000s: Lana #571, Logan #384 — Logan higher
- 2010s: Lana #403, Logan #399 — Logan higher
- 2020s: Lana #398, Logan #358 — Logan higher
Lana stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Logan has held the lead since the 1990s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Lana | Logan |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #950 | — |
| 1890s | #1104 | — |
| 1900s | #1486 | — |
| 1910s | #1922 | — |
| 1920s | #1826 | — |
| 1930s | #1872 | — |
| 1940s | #220 | — |
| 1950s | #293 | — |
| 1960s | #315 | — |
| 1970s | #414 | #5629 |
| 1980s | #568 | #1245 |
| 1990s | #942 | #355 |
| 2000s | #571 | #384 |
| 2010s | #403 | #399 |
| 2020s | #398 | #358 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Lana
- France#97
Logan
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Lana
Depends on which Lana: 'light' through Svetlana, or 'calm, buoyant' in Hawaiian
Several genuine roads meet at this spelling. In Russian and across the Balkans, Lana is the everyday short form of Svetlana, from a root meaning 'light'; it also clips Milana and Alana. In Hawaiian, lana is a word meaning 'floating, buoyant, calm'. In Latin and its descendants — Italian, Spanish — lana simply means 'wool'. None of these cancels the others; the name arrived in English from more than one direction.
Svetlana → Lana
How it traveled
The Slavic line is the best documented: Svetlana became widespread in Russia in the nineteenth century, and Lana is its ordinary short form, still used that way in Russia, Croatia and Serbia, where Lana also stands alone as a full given name. In English, the name came in largely by a different door — as a clipping of Alana, the feminine of the Irish and Breton name Alan, and then through American film, when a young contract actress was given Lana as a screen name in the late 1930s.
Logan
little hollow
From Scottish Gaelic lagan, a diminutive of lag, 'hollow' or 'low-lying place' — the source of the place name Logan in Ayrshire, from which the surname comes. An unrelated Irish surname, Ó Leocháin, was also anglicized as Logan.
lag / lagan (Scottish Gaelic, 'hollow') → Logan (place, Ayrshire) → Logan (Scottish surname) → Logan (given name)
How it traveled
The oldest Logan is a piece of ground: a hollow in Ayrshire in southwest Scotland, whose name gave the local family theirs. Scottish and Ulster-Scots families carried the surname across the Atlantic, where it stuck to the map as well as to people — Mount Logan in the Yukon, Boston's Logan airport, the town of Logan, Utah.
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
Lana
LAH-nuh
LAH-nuh is the dominant pronunciation in the US and matches the Slavic original. Some American families say LAN-uh, rhyming with Anna. Both are established, so it is worth deciding which one you mean early — people will ask.
- Lanie — The most common affectionate extension; also spelled Laney and used on its own as a given name.
- Lala — A family-only nickname, mostly used with small children.
- Lan — Rare and informal in English; Lan is a separate given name in Vietnamese and Chinese.
Logan
LOH-gan
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives phone calls, roll calls and coffee cups without correction.
- Lo — The most common clipping, used among family and friends; works equally for a boy or a girl.
- Logie — Follows the Scottish -ie diminutive pattern; affectionate and household-level rather than public.
- Logs — A teammate-and-classmate nickname, informal and usually short-lived.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Lana if you want…
- a name that charts abroad tooLana is on the national lists of France
Choose Logan if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsLogan is stepping back from its peak
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
Lana
Strengths
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, and short enough that no one needs it repeated or abbreviated on a form.
- Works unchanged in Russian, Croatian, Serbian and French, where it also currently charts — useful in a bilingual family.
- A long, level record rather than a fashion spike: represented across several generations of living Americans, not concentrated in one.
To consider
- Two live pronunciations, LAH-nuh and LAN-uh, means a lifetime of small corrections unless you are relaxed about either.
- The singer Lana Del Rey is the strongest current association in the US, and for some listeners the name will call up her music before anything else.
- In Spanish and Italian, lana is the ordinary word for wool. Harmless, but Spanish-speaking relatives will notice it.
Logan
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and known everywhere in the English-speaking world — little risk of lifelong correcting.
- Charts in Canada, Scotland and England & Wales as well as the US, so it travels without translation.
- Short and complete on its own; it needs no nickname, though Lo and Logie are there if wanted.
To consider
- It reads male to most people on paper. A girl named Logan will meet forms and rosters that assume otherwise — manageable, but worth knowing in advance.
- The name rose sharply and is now easing back, so it clusters heavily around people in their teens and twenties. It may sound of a particular moment rather than timeless for a while.
- Very little to shorten. If you like a long name with a private nickname inside it, Logan gives you almost nothing to work with.
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 Lana and Logan 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 Lana and Logan?
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.
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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 these names appear on
- France's favorites still rare in America
- Midcentury modern: tomorrow's comeback bets
- Slavic names with soft power
- all guides
Where Lana and Logan each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Lana or Logan — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Lana or Logan?
- Logan, in 2025: Logan ranked #402 with 775 babies; Lana ranked #406 with 768 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Lana or Logan?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Lana moved down 13 places; Logan moved down 85 places.
- Which is the older name, Lana or Logan?
- Lana entered the US charts in 1885; Logan entered the US charts in 1972. On the American record, Lana is the older name.
- How many people are named Lana and Logan?
- About 50,000 people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 31,500 people named Logan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Lanas or Logans in the classroom?
- Lana will almost certainly be the only one in school. Logan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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