Cana
Feminine · “probably 'place of reeds”
Cana is a village in Galilee where, in the second chapter of John, a wedding runs out of wine. It is one of the small number of biblical place names that English-speaking families have taken up as given names, and its American use is modern — it appears in numbers in the 1990s, in the same wave that brought Bethany, Shiloh and Jericho onto birth certificates.
How old is the name Cana?
Cana first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Cana alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Cana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cana most popular?
Cana peaked in 1999, reaching #3569 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 2,153 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From qaneh to Cana
The story of Cana
Cana of Galilee appears three times in the Gospel of John: the wedding where water becomes wine, a healing performed from a distance, and as the home of the disciple Nathanael. That first episode is one of the most familiar in the New Testament, and it made Cana a word that Christian readers recognize without knowing where it is. Place names from scripture became usable as given names in America in the late twentieth century, when parents began treating the Bible as a source of sounds as well as of people: Bethany, Shiloh, Jordan, Zion and Cana all rise in the same decades. American use of Cana is small but steady, and it peaked in the late 1990s.
Meaningscholars disagree
probably 'place of reeds'
The Hebrew and Aramaic name behind Cana is usually connected to qaneh, 'reed, cane' — the same Semitic word that gives English cane and the word canon, by way of a reed used as a measuring rod. That reading is likely but not certain, and the exact site of the biblical Cana is itself disputed among archaeologists, with three villages in Galilee claiming it. As a personal name Cana carries the place rather than the word.
How the name formed
- qaneh
- Kana
- Cana
Related forms: Kana · Qana · Cana
Pronouncing Cana
KAY-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long a of cane — the usual English reading of the biblical name. A second saying, KAH-nah, follows the Hebrew and is used by some families and by Spanish speakers.
Nicknames for Cana
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 199934 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3569reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −8.7%21 in 2025, from 23
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.
Cana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kana in Greek — transliteration
- Qana in Arabic — transliteration
- Cana in Spanish — same name
Canas among us
people named Cana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Cana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cana
- #5722
- Cana on the 2025 chart
- #917
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cana went to 21 girls in 2025, but Kana and Kanna are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 43, which makes it the 917th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,805 places above the chart.
- Cana21
- Kana12
- Kanna10
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Cana 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 Arcadia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arcadia climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arcadia's path sketches the road Cana is walking now.
Cana 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
Cana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, easy to spell and easy to say in English and Spanish alike.
- The scriptural reference is one that most readers recognize immediately.
- It is genuinely uncommon without being unfamiliar in sound.
- Two pronunciations circulate, KAY-nuh and KAH-nah.
- It is close to Cana, Kana, Lana and Dana in sound and will be misheard.
- In Spanish, cana is an ordinary word for a grey hair, which Spanish speakers will notice.
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What they receive
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Cana
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Canas 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 Cana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cana?
- Cana is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 43 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kana and Kanna.
- How popular is the name Cana in 2025?
- Cana ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cana?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Cana — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cana with classmates?
- Cana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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