Ashna
Feminine · “familiar”
Ashna is a Persian word about knowing someone. It means acquainted, familiar, at home with — and by extension a friend, the person you do not have to explain yourself to. Persian lent it to Urdu and Hindi centuries ago, and it has been used as a name in South Asia since, carrying a meaning that most languages need a whole phrase to reach.
How old is the name Ashna?
Ashna first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Ashna alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 600 people named Ashna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ashna most popular?
Ashna peaked in 2003, reaching #2673 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,535 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ashna to Ashna
The story of Ashna
Persian was the language of administration and poetry across much of South Asia for several centuries, and it left a very large vocabulary behind in Urdu and Hindi — including a great many words that became names. Ashna belongs to that layer. It is used across India and Pakistan and among South Asian families elsewhere, and it reached American records in the later twentieth century with that migration. It sits, conveniently, close to a set of English-familiar sounds, which is part of why it travels well.
Meaning
familiar; a friend one knows well
From the Persian ashna, from a root meaning to know or recognize — related, at a great distance, to the same Indo-European root behind the English word know. In Urdu poetry it carries a particular warmth: an ashna is not merely an acquaintance but someone with whom recognition is mutual.
How the name formed
- ashna
- Ashna
Related forms: Ashna · Ashna · Ashna
Pronouncing Ashna
AHSH-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with an open first vowel closer to the a in father than to the one in cash. The shn cluster in the middle is easy for English speakers, who meet it in words like cushion said quickly.
Nicknames for Ashna
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 200359 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2673reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Ashna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ashna in Persian — same name
- Ashna in Urdu — same name
- Ashna in Hindi — same name
Ashnas among us
people named Ashna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Ashna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ashna
- #13208
- Ashna on the 2025 chart
- #945
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ashna went to 6 girls in 2025, but Aashna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 15, which makes it the 945th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,263 places above the chart.
- Aashna9
- Ashna6
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Ashna 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 Cythia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ashna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cythia climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cythia's path sketches the road Ashna is walking now.
Ashna 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
Ashna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ashna 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 unusually warm and needs a whole phrase to translate, which makes it worth explaining.
- Ash is available and is entirely established in American use.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no sound English lacks.
- It is spelled phonetically in the Roman alphabet, which many South Asian names are not.
- English speakers will flatten the first vowel toward the a of ash, which is close but not right.
- It is easily confused with Asha, Ashna's near-neighbor Ashni, and Ayesha.
- Outside South Asian communities the name needs a short introduction, which is a small tax paid often.
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What they receive
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Ashna
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ashnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ashna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ashna?
- Ashna is one of 2 recorded spellings. Aashna is the more common one — 9 births in 2025 against 6 for Ashna.
- How popular is the name Ashna in 2025?
- Ashna ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ashna?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Ashna — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ashna with classmates?
- Ashna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ashna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ashna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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