Arna
Feminine · “Old Norse "eagle”
Arna is the feminine of Arne, and it means eagle. Old Norse ari or örn is an eagle, and it built a whole family of Germanic and Scandinavian names — Arne, Arnold, Arnulf, Arnbjörn — in which the bird is joined to a second element. Arna is the short form standing alone.
How old is the name Arna?
Arna first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Arna alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 500 people named Arna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arna most popular?
Arna peaked in 1903, reaching #1592 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 5,541 places below that high. See the whole 1903 chart.
Where it comes from
From ari to Arna
The story of Arna
Scandinavian naming built compound names from a fixed stock of elements — eagle, wolf, bear, war, ruler, protection — and then wore them down to short forms that became independent. Arne, Arna, Bjorn and Erna all came about that way. Icelandic and Norwegian have kept Arna in use continuously. Its American 1903 peak sits at the height of Scandinavian immigration to the upper Midwest, alongside Selma, Alma, Hulda and Thea, and the name faded with that generation.
Meaning
Old Norse "eagle"
From Old Norse ari, an eagle, related to Old High German arn and to the modern German Aar. Arnold is the eagle plus wald, ruler; Arnulf is the eagle plus wolf. Arna is the feminine form of the simple element. The etymology is settled across the whole Germanic family. Separately, Hebrew has an unrelated name Arna from the word for a cedar.
How the name formed
- ari
- Arne
- Arna
Related forms: Arna · Arna · Arnhilde · Arna
Pronouncing Arna
AR-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with both vowels open. Icelandic gives a rolled r and a clearer final vowel. English speakers reduce the ending to AR-nuh, which is close enough.
Nicknames for Arna
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 202129 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1592reached in 1903
- Change vs 2024
- −37.5%15 in 2025, from 24
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.
Arna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arna in Icelandic — same name
- Arna in Norwegian — same name
- Arnhilde in German — related form
- Arna in Faroese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New Jersey, Texas.
Arnas among us
people named Arna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Arna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Arna
- #7133
- Arna on the 2025 chart
- #808
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Arna went to 15 girls in 2025, but Aarna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 152, which makes it the 808th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,325 places above the chart.
- Aarna137
- Arna15
About 1 girl in 10,574 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Arna 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
Fashion outlook
Arna 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
Arna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arna 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 settled and vivid — an eagle, in four letters.
- It is a genuine Icelandic and Norwegian name with continuous use.
- It is short, easy and impossible to mispronounce in English.
- It is very rare in America and carries no shared reference.
- It will be read as a shortening of Arnold or Arlene.
- The 1903 peak makes it a revival rather than a current name.
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Arna
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Arna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Arna?
- Arna is one of 2 recorded spellings. Aarna is the more common one — 137 births in 2025 against 15 for Arna.
- How popular is the name Arna in 2025?
- Arna ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arna?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Arna — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arna with classmates?
- Arna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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