Jana
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Jana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 46,185 girls against 38 boys since 1880.
Four letters, two beats, and a history that reaches back through Prague and Amsterdam to the Greek and Hebrew of the ancient world. Jana has been on American record books for a full century now, worn quietly and steadily rather than in a rush — familiar to most people who hear it, yet rarely met twice in one room.
How old is the name Jana?
Jana first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Jana alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 42,500 people named Jana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jana most popular?
Jana peaked in 1961, reaching #226 nationally. Today it ranks #1241, 1,015 places below that high. See the whole 1961 chart.
Jana appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Yochanan to Jana
The story of Jana
The European Jana comes from Yochanan, the Hebrew name behind John, which passed into Greek as Iōannēs and into Latin as Johannes. Northern and Central Europe clipped that long form down to Jan, and Jana is its feminine — the sister of Jane in English and Juana in Spanish. It has been standard in Czech and Slovak naming for centuries, and is equally at home in Dutch, German and Slovene. The Arabic Janā traveled a separate road entirely, and both spellings landed in the United States within living memory.
Meaningscholars disagree
'God is gracious', through the Slavic feminine of Jan (John); separately, in Arabic, 'harvest, gathered fruit'
These are two different names that arrived at the same spelling. Across Czech, Slovak, Slovene, German and Dutch usage, Jana is the feminine of Jan — the same name as Jane and Joan, from Hebrew Yochanan, 'God is gracious'. In Arabic, Janā (جنى) is its own word, for fruit that has been picked or a harvest brought in. Neither reading is a guess; which one applies depends on the family.
How the name formed
- Yochanan
- Iōannēs
- Johannes
- Jan
- Jana
Related forms: Jana · Jane · Janina · Juana · Janneke · Janā
Pronouncing Jana
YAH-nah
YAH-nah is the pronunciation across Czech, German, Dutch and Arabic use, and the one most Jana bearers prefer. In the United States you will also hear JAN-uh, rhyming with Anna, and occasionally JAY-nuh from readers who see Jane in it. Worth deciding early and saying it the same way every time.
Nicknames for Jana
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 19621,313 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #226reached in 1961
- Change vs 2023
- −9.5%181 in 2025, from 200
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.
Jana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jana in Czech / Slovak — same name
- Jane in English — related form
- Janina in Polish — related form
- Juana in Spanish — related form
- Janneke in Dutch — related form
- Janā in Arabic — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Janas among us
people named Jana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,880 born in 2025 was named Jana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jana
- #1241
- Jana on the 2025 chart
- #576
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jana went to 181 girls in 2025, but Jannah, Janna and Jaana and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 418, which makes it the 576th most-given girls’ name of the year — 665 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,845 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,880 for Jana 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 Sharron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sharron climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sharron's path sketches the road Jana is walking now.
Jana 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 Jana is headed
Jana is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Jana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, evenly stressed and easy to write — four letters, no silent parts, no variant spelling competing for the same sound.
- Works unchanged in Czech, Slovak, Slovene, German, Dutch and Arabic-speaking contexts, which few names of this length manage.
- A century of continuous presence in American records, so it reads as an established name rather than a recent coinage.
- Belongs to the John/Jane family, giving it deep naming roots without sounding like a shortened Jane.
- Has real diminutives already in use — Janka, Jani, Janie — rather than needing one invented.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: YAH-nah, JAN-uh and JAY-nuh are all heard in the United States. Expect to correct people, kindly and often, for a lifetime.
- It sits close to Janna, Jenna, Janae and Jane in the ear, so mishearings over the phone and on rosters are likely.
- Most Americans named Jana today are well into adulthood, so the name currently reads as a grown woman's name more than a child's — that changes with each new one born.
- A child with this name will rarely meet another, which some children love and others find tiring when a name has to be spelled out each September.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Jana
Feminine · #1241 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Janas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 42,500 people named Jana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jana?
- Jana is the most-used spelling in US records — 181 of the 418 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jannah, Janna, Jaana and Janah.
- How popular is the name Jana in 2025?
- Jana ranks #1241 among US girl names in 2025, with 181 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jana?
- About 1 in every 8,880 US girls born in 2025 was named Jana — 181 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jana with classmates?
- Jana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Amethyst#1241 · Anderson#1241 · Cooper#1241 · Amal#1241 · Eliette#1241 · Everley#1241 · Emmaline#1235 · Silvia#1235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jana and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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