Ianna
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Ianna has at least two honest readings and the spelling does not choose. It is the shape a feminine of Ian would take in English, and it is also very close to Iana and Yana, the Slavic feminine of John that has been ordinary in Bulgaria and Russia for centuries.
How old is the name Ianna?
Ianna first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Ianna alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,100 people named Ianna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ianna most popular?
Ianna peaked in 2011, reaching #2909 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 2,329 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yôḥānān to Ianna
Our story of Ianna
Some names arrive at the same letters from several directions and then stay there, and Ianna is one of them. A Scottish-descended family reads it as a daughter's version of Ian. A Bulgarian or Russian family reads it as Yana with the spelling anglicized. An American family in the 1990s and 2000s reads it as Anna with an opening vowel, in the same movement that produced Iyanna, Aiyana, Aianna and Ayanna — all of which were in the records at the same time. Its peak in 2011 sits in that third stream, which is the largest of the three in American data. None of the readings is wrong; the honest statement is that the letters are shared and the histories are not.
Meaningscholars disagree
God is gracious, if from the John family
Ian is the Scottish Gaelic form of John, from Hebrew Yôḥānān, God is gracious, and that reading is settled for Ian. Slavic Yana and Iana are the feminine of Ioan, the same name by a different road, and are equally settled. Whether an American Ianna descends from either, or is simply Anna with an I added in the manner of Iyanna and Aianna, cannot be told from the record.
How the name formed
- Yôḥānān
- Ian
- Ianna
Related forms: Яна · Iain · Ioana · Yana
Pronouncing Ianna
ee-AN-uh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some American families say EYE-an-uh with a long opening i, following Ian, and both are in use.
Nicknames for Ianna
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
- 1980
- Most girls named
- 201159 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2909reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%24 in 2025, from 32
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.
Ianna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Яна in Bulgarian — related form
- Iain in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Ioana in Romanian — related form
- Yana in Russian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Iannas among us
people named Ianna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Ianna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ianna
- #5238
- Ianna on the 2025 chart
- #752
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ianna went to 24 girls in 2025, but Iyanna, Iyana and Iana and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 209, which makes it the 752nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,486 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,690 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Ianna 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 Tamaria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ianna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tamaria climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tamaria's path sketches the road Ianna is walking now.
Ianna 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
Ianna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ianna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Anna sits inside it as a complete and ancient short form.
- The vowels are open and easy for any English speaker.
- It has a plausible connection to one of the largest name families in the world.
- The opening vowel is said two ways and the spelling does not settle it.
- Ianna, Iana, Ayanna and Iyanna will all be written for each other.
- No single source can be claimed for it with confidence.
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What they receive
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Ianna
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Iannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Ianna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ianna?
- Ianna is one of 5 recorded spellings. Iyanna is the more common one — 99 births in 2025 against 24 for Ianna.
- How popular is the name Ianna in 2025?
- Ianna ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ianna?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Ianna — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ianna with classmates?
- Ianna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ianna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ianna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ianna and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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