Head to head · Girls' names
Lana vs Raven
#406 vs #404 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Raven is a whisker ahead (#404 vs #406 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. 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, Raven leads 4 measures of 6; Lana 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, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1890s: Lana #1104, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1900s: Lana #1486, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1910s: Lana #1922, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1920s: Lana #1826, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1930s: Lana #1872, Raven — — Lana higher
- 1940s: Lana #220, Raven #4003 — Lana higher
- 1950s: Lana #293, Raven #4855 — Lana higher
- 1960s: Lana #315, Raven #3847 — Lana higher
- 1970s: Lana #414, Raven #2711 — Lana higher
- 1980s: Lana #568, Raven #521 — Raven higher
- 1990s: Lana #942, Raven #167 — Raven higher
- 2000s: Lana #571, Raven #371 — Raven higher
- 2010s: Lana #403, Raven #501 — Lana higher
- 2020s: Lana #398, Raven #397 — Raven higher
Lana stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Raven took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Lana | Raven |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #950 | — |
| 1890s | #1104 | — |
| 1900s | #1486 | — |
| 1910s | #1922 | — |
| 1920s | #1826 | — |
| 1930s | #1872 | — |
| 1940s | #220 | #4003 |
| 1950s | #293 | #4855 |
| 1960s | #315 | #3847 |
| 1970s | #414 | #2711 |
| 1980s | #568 | #521 |
| 1990s | #942 | #167 |
| 2000s | #571 | #371 |
| 2010s | #403 | #501 |
| 2020s | #398 | #397 |
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
Raven
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.
Raven
raven (the bird)
From Old English hræfn, going back to a Proto-Germanic word thought to imitate the bird's call; German Rabe and Old Norse hrafn are the same word.
Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz → Old English hræfn → Middle English raven → Raven
How it traveled
Raven is a word name: English speakers have called the bird a raven for well over a thousand years, and the spelling has barely shifted. Long before it was a given name in America, the raven element was doing work inside Germanic names — the -hram in Bertram, the -fram in Wolfram — and Old Norse used Hrafn on its own as a man's name, which Icelandic still carries alongside the feminine Hrefna.
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.
Raven
RAY-vun
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the bird. No competing pronunciation in English.
- Rae — The most portable short form, and a standalone given name in its own right.
- Rav — Informal, mostly spoken rather than written.
- Ravie — Affectionate family use, rarely used outside the household.
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 holding steadyLana is holding its place on the charts
- a name that charts abroad tooLana is on the national lists of France
Choose Raven if you want…
- a name on the way upup 13 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
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.
Raven
Strengths
- Spelled the way the ordinary English word is spelled, so it survives dictation over the phone without correction.
- Read correctly on sight by anyone who speaks English; there is no second pronunciation to fend off.
- Yields Rae, a short form that already stands on its own as a name.
To consider
- In Western literature the raven is a bird of omen — Poe's 1845 poem is the reference most English speakers reach for first. In Haida and Tlingit storytelling the same bird is a creator and trickster. Both associations travel with the name.
- US records list Raven overwhelmingly as a girl's name. It is given to boys too, but rarely enough that a boy named Raven will spend some time explaining it.
- Raven is also a familiar character name in comics and animation, which means a stretch of years where the reference gets mentioned. That fades as the shows do.
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 Raven 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 Raven?
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
- Bird names taking flight
- all guides
Where Lana and Raven each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Lana or Raven — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Lana or Raven?
- Raven, in 2025: Raven ranked #404 with 771 babies; Lana ranked #406 with 768 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Lana or Raven?
- Raven. Over the last five years Lana moved down 13 places; Raven moved up 13 places.
- Which is the older name, Lana or Raven?
- Lana entered the US charts in 1885; Raven entered the US charts in 1941. On the American record, Lana is the older name.
- How many people are named Lana and Raven?
- About 50,000 people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 44,500 people named Raven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Lanas or Ravens in the classroom?
- Lana will almost certainly be the only one in school. Raven 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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