Havanna
Feminine · “From a Taíno place or chief's name”
Taíno was the first Native American language Europeans met, and it gave English more words than any other: hurricane, hammock, barbecue, canoe, tobacco, maize, savanna, cannibal. Havana is a Taíno place name, and the people who supplied all those words were gone within fifty years.
How old is the name Havanna?
Havanna first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Havanna alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 600 people named Havanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Havanna most popular?
Havanna peaked in 2018, reaching #3559 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 3,932 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Habana to Havanna
The story of Havanna
The Taíno of the Greater Antilles were the first people Columbus encountered in 1492, and Spanish took a large vocabulary from them almost immediately, which then passed into every European language: huracán from the name of a storm spirit, hamaca, barbacoa, canoa, tabaco, maíz, sabana, caimán, iguana, and caníbal, a variant of the name Carib. Within two generations the Taíno population had collapsed under disease and forced labor, and the language ceased to be spoken. The words remain among the most common in English. Havana became an American given name in the 2010s, and the Havanna spelling peaks in 2018.
Meaningnot established
From a Taíno place or chief's name, of uncertain sense
The Spanish settlement founded in 1519 was named San Cristóbal de La Habana; the second element is generally taken from a Taíno name, sometimes given as a chief called Habaguanex, but the derivation is not established and the Taíno language is imperfectly recorded. Havanna with a doubled n is an American respelling. No meaning can be claimed with confidence.
How the name formed
- Habana
- Havana
- Havanna
Related forms: Habana · Havana
Pronouncing Havanna
huh-VAN-uh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Spanish Habana is ah-BAH-nah with a b sound and no h; the English pronunciation changes both consonants.
Nicknames for Havanna
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 201843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3559reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%14 in 2025, from 20
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.
Havanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Habana in Spanish — related form
- Havana in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, North Carolina.
Havannas among us
people named Havanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Havanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Havanna
- #7491
- Havanna on the 2025 chart
- #891
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Havanna went to 14 girls in 2025, but Havana and Havannah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 69, which makes it the 891st most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,600 places above the chart.
- Havana48
- Havanna14
- Havannah7
About 1 girl in 23,294 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Havanna 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 Onna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Havanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Onna climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Onna's path sketches the road Havanna is walking now.
Havanna 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
Havanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Havanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ava and Vanna are ready short forms that stand alone.
- It is read correctly on sight by English speakers.
- It names a specific and well-known city.
- Havana is the standard spelling and will be substituted.
- The meaning of the Taíno original is genuinely unrecoverable.
- It reads as a place name first to most Americans.
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What they receive
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Havanna
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Havannas 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 Havanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Havanna?
- Havanna is one of 3 recorded spellings. Havana is the more common one — 48 births in 2025 against 14 for Havanna.
- How popular is the name Havanna in 2025?
- Havanna ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Havanna?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Havanna — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Havanna with classmates?
- Havanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Havanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Havanna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Havanna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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