Channa
Feminine · “Favor”
Channa is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 873 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Channa is two names in two traditions that have never met: a Hebrew name about favor, and the name of the man who drove the Buddha's chariot on the night that started everything.
How old is the name Channa?
Channa first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Channa alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 800 people named Channa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Channa most popular?
Channa peaked in 1984, reaching #2515 nationally. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Channa
The Buddhist story is the better-known one in Asia. Channa was the prince's charioteer, and it was he who drove him outside the palace walls where he saw, for the first time, an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a wandering ascetic — the four sights that made him leave. Channa drove him out of the city on the night he left, took the horse and the cut-off hair back, and by most accounts did not take the departure well: the later texts describe him as proud and difficult for years afterward, on the grounds that he had known the teacher before anyone else had. It is one of the more human portraits in the tradition.
Meaningscholars disagree
Favor, in Hebrew — the Pali name is a separate word
In Hebrew the name means favor or grace, and it is the same name that English writes as Hannah — the ch here is an attempt at a throat sound English does not have. In Pali and Sanskrit it is an unrelated name belonging to a servant in the Buddha's household. The two are separate words that happen to be written the same way in English letters.
Pronouncing Channa
HAH-nuh
Two syllables, stress at the front. The Hebrew ch is a throat sound; American speakers say either a plain h or a ch as in church, depending on which tradition they know.
Nicknames for Channa
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 198437 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2515reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%5 in 2024, 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.
Channa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Channah in Hebrew — related form
- Channa in Pali — related form
Channas among us
people named Channa are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Channa sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short and easy in both traditions that use it.
- The spelling is unambiguous even though the first sound is not.
- It is rare while every sound in it is available in English.
- The opening consonant is said two ways and she will be asked which.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- Two unrelated traditions use the same letters, so the family's own account is the one that matters.
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Channa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Channas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Channa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Channa in 2025?
- Channa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Channa with classmates?
- Channa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Channa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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