Adanna
Feminine · “father's daughter”
Adanna is Igbo, and it says something specific: father's daughter. Igbo names are statements, given at a naming ceremony and understood by everyone present, and this one places a daughter in a relationship rather than describing her.
How old is the name Adanna?
Adanna first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Adanna alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 700 people named Adanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Adanna most popular?
Adanna peaked in 2016, reaching #4531 nationally. Today it ranks #4878, 347 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Adanna
The ada in Igbo society is a position as much as a description: the first daughter has responsibilities toward her father's household that continue after she marries, and names built on the word acknowledge that. Adanna is among the commonest of them in south-eastern Nigeria. The name reached American and British records with Nigerian families over the last few decades, and its open syllables have kept it intact in English, which mangles a good many other Igbo names.
Meaning
father's daughter
Igbo ada, a daughter and particularly a first daughter, joined to nna, father. Ada opens a whole set of Igbo women's names: Adaeze, a king's daughter; Adaobi, daughter of the household.
Pronouncing Adanna
ah-DAH-nah
Three open syllables, weight in the middle. Igbo is tonal and carries a tune English cannot reproduce; the syllables themselves are simple.
Nicknames for Adanna
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 200732 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4531reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +35.0%27 in 2025, from 20
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Adanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Adaeze in Igbo — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Adannas among us
people named Adanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was named Adanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Adanna
- #4878
- Adanna on the 2025 chart
- #928
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Adanna went to 27 girls in 2025, but Adana is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 928th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,950 places above the chart.
- Adanna27
- Adana5
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 59,528 for Adanna itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Purvi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Adanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Purvi climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Purvi's path sketches the road Adanna is walking now.
Adanna sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Adanna is headed
Adanna should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Adanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Adanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a complete statement and can be given in two words.
- Ada and Anna are both ready short forms, and both are complete names elsewhere.
- Every syllable is open, so English speakers rarely mangle it.
- Outside Igbo communities the meaning is invisible and will be explained many times.
- Adanna and Adana are close enough to be written for one another.
- It is a name about a relationship, which some families find beautiful and others find limiting.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Adanna
Feminine · #4878 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Adanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Adanna?
- Adanna is the most-used spelling in US records — 27 of the 32 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Adana.
- How popular is the name Adanna in 2025?
- Adanna ranks #4878 among US girl names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Adanna?
- About 1 in every 59,528 US girls born in 2025 was named Adanna — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Adanna with classmates?
- Adanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Adanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maribelle#4878 · Evangelia#4878 · Pari#4878 · Zoraya#4878 · Saba#4878 · Chyna#4878 · Odyssey#4878 · Zana#4878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Adanna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Adanna and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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