Chana
Feminine · Hebrew roots · “grace”
Chana is the Hebrew name behind Hannah and Anna, kept in its older shape: the same three syllables Jewish families have said for thousands of years, opening with the soft rasp you hear at the start of challah. It carries the story of Hannah in the Book of Samuel, whose whispered prayer for a child became the model for how Jewish prayer is said to this day. Short, unornamented, and still in steady use — most often in the communities that never stopped using it.
How old is the name Chana?
Chana first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Chana alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 13,500 people named Chana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chana most popular?
Chana peaked in 2024, reaching #670 nationally. Today it ranks #686, 16 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ḥannah (Hebrew) to Chana
The story of Chana
Chana is the Ashkenazi transliteration of the Hebrew חַנָּה, the name of the woman in the Book of Samuel who prayed silently at Shiloh and was given a son. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, the guttural first sound had no equivalent and was simply dropped — giving Anna, which traveled through Latin into nearly every European language as Anne, Ana, Hanna and Hannah. Chana is what remained where the Hebrew was still read and spoken: through medieval Ashkenaz, through Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe, and across the Atlantic with the families who came. In US records it clusters in New York, New Jersey and Florida, which is the map of that migration.
Meaning
grace, favor
From the Hebrew root ḥen, grace or favor — the same root behind the name Yochanan, and so behind John and Jane as well.
How the name formed
- ḤannahHebrew
- Chana
- AnnaGreek
- Hannah
- Anne
Related forms: Hannah · Channah · Anna · Ana · Anne · Hana
Pronouncing Chana
KHAH-nah
The ch is the guttural of Bach, challah and Chanukah, not the ch of chair. Many English speakers land on HAH-nah instead, which most bearers accept without correction.
Nicknames for Chana
High
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 2025413 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #670reached in 2024
- Change vs 2023
- +4.8%413 in 2025, from 394
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.
Chana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hannah in English — same name
- Channah in Hebrew — spelling variant
- Anna in Greek / Latin — related form
- Ana in Spanish — related form
- Anne in French — related form
- Hana in Czech / Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, Florida.
Chanas among us
people named Chana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,892 born in 2025 was named Chana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Chantelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Chana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chantelle climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chantelle's path sketches the road Chana is walking now.
Chana 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 Chana is headed
Chana should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Chana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Chana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Shares an origin with Hannah, Anna and Anne, so the meaning and the story are recognizable even to people meeting this spelling for the first time.
- Two clean syllables and four letters, easy to write early and easy to say once the opening sound is learned.
- Established short forms already in real use — Chani and Chanie — rather than ones a family would have to invent.
- In continuous use since biblical times, and travels into nearly every language through its Anna and Hannah relatives.
- The opening sound has no English equivalent. Outside communities that know it, expect a lifetime of gentle correcting — or of letting HAH-nah stand, which many bearers do.
- In the US this spelling is closely tied to Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish families. For many that is precisely the point; it is worth knowing it reads as a clear marker of identity.
- Chana is also the Hindi and Urdu word for chickpea, familiar from restaurant menus, and a Spanish short form of Susana. Neither causes real trouble, but both will occasionally come up.
- With Hannah so widely known, people may assume this spelling is a variant of it rather than the older form — a small correction to make now and then.
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What they receive
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Chana
Feminine · Hebrew roots · #686 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Chanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Chana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chana in 2025?
- Chana ranks #686 among US girl names in 2025, with 413 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Chana?
- About 1 in every 3,892 US girls born in 2025 was named Chana — 413 in all.
- Will my child share the name Chana with classmates?
- Chana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Chana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dallas#686 · Emberly#688 · Georgina#689 · Khaleesi#689 · Wrenleigh#683 · Sasha#683 · Coraline#683 · Ellis#682
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chana? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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