Ivana
Feminine · “Yahweh is gracious”
Ivana is the feminine of Ivan, the Slavic John — a name that reached the Slavic languages from Hebrew by way of Greek and has been in continuous use from the Adriatic to the Danube ever since. Four open vowels, stress in the middle, nothing hidden in the spelling: it is read the way it is written in a dozen languages.
How old is the name Ivana?
Ivana first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Ivana alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 7,900 people named Ivana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ivana most popular?
Ivana peaked in 1990, reaching #849 nationally. Today it ranks #1102, 253 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Ivana appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Ivana
The story of Ivana
Behind Ivana stands one of the most widely traveled names in the world. Hebrew Yohanan became Greek Ioannes in the early Christian centuries, and from there passed into the Slavic languages as Ivan, one of the commonest men's names from Croatia to Russia; Ivana is its regular feminine. It became a standard given name across Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Bulgarian and Macedonian usage, and traveled to the United States with families from those countries, where it has held a small, unbroken presence rather than a fashionable one.
Meaning
"Yahweh is gracious" — the feminine of Ivan, the Slavic form of John
The root is the Hebrew name Yohanan, from the elements meaning "Yahweh" and "gracious".
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Ioannes
- Ivan
- Ivana
Related forms: Ivana · Ivana · Ivanna · Giovanna · Juana · Joanna
Pronouncing Ivana
ee-VAH-nah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. American speakers often shift the first syllable toward ih-, and some say the middle vowel as in "van" rather than "vah" — both are heard, and either is easy to correct once.
Nicknames for Ivana
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 2010266 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #849reached in 1990
- Change vs 2023
- −2.7%217 in 2025, from 223
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.
Ivana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ivana in Czech / Slovak — same name
- Ivana in Croatian / Serbian — same name
- Ivanna in Ukrainian — spelling variant
- Giovanna in Italian — related form
- Juana in Spanish — related form
- Joanna in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Ivanas among us
people named Ivana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,407 born in 2025 was named Ivana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ivana
- #1102
- Ivana on the 2025 chart
- #397
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ivana went to 217 girls in 2025, but Ivanna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 747, which makes it the 397th most-given girls’ name of the year — 705 places above the chart.
- Ivanna530
- Ivana217
About 1 girl in 2,152 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,407 for Ivana 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 Olympia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ivana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Olympia climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Olympia's path sketches the road Ivana is walking now.
Ivana 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 Ivana is headed
Ivana 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.
Ivana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ivana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, with no silent letters and no competing English spellings to explain.
- Works unchanged in Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Bulgarian and Macedonian, and has close relatives in Italian, Spanish and English.
- Traces back through Ivan and Greek Ioannes to Hebrew Yohanan, an unbroken line of well over two thousand years.
- Comes with ready-made short forms — Iva, Ivanka, Ivi — that are already in real use rather than improvised.
- Familiar to most American ears without being widely used, so it rarely needs repeating twice.
- The pronunciation splits in American mouths between ee-VAH-nah and ih-VAN-ah. Both are used, but expect to state which one you mean, most likely for life.
- Because it is uncommon here, it gets pulled toward the names it resembles — Iva, Ivanna, Ivania, Ivanka — in spelling and in speech.
- For a stretch of late twentieth-century American media the name was closely attached to one very prominent public figure, which some readers will still hear first. That association has faded considerably with time.
- A child with this name will most likely be the only one in her class, which some children enjoy and others find tiring in the years when everyone wants to match.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ivana
Feminine · #1102 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ivanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,900 people named Ivana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ivana?
- Ivana is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ivanna is the more common one — 530 births in 2025 against 217 for Ivana.
- How popular is the name Ivana in 2025?
- Ivana ranks #1102 among US girl names in 2025, with 217 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ivana?
- About 1 in every 7,407 US girls born in 2025 was named Ivana — 217 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ivana with classmates?
- Ivana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ivana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marian#1102 · Tatiana#1104 · Elsa#1104 · Lianna#1104 · Xochitl#1098 · Sterling#1098 · Jayleen#1098 · Renee#1098
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ivana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ivana and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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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