Katana
Feminine · “single-edged sword”
Katana is the Japanese word for the curved single-edged sword of the samurai, and it is also, in a completely unrelated language, a Kenyan men's name. The two share nothing but their spelling.
How old is the name Katana?
Katana first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Katana alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 1,800 people named Katana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katana most popular?
Katana peaked in 2023, reaching #2314 nationally. Today it ranks #3389, 1,075 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Katana
Ours, offered as ours. The Japanese sword is real, the Kenyan name is real, and the American given name is almost certainly neither. What it has is a shape — three even syllables, open vowels, no difficult consonant — that reads easily in a great many languages, and a first association that is a weapon. That last part matters and is worth saying plainly: whatever a family intends, most people who meet the name will think of a sword first, because the word has been carried worldwide by film and by martial arts.
Meaningscholars disagree
single-edged sword
Japanese katana names the long curved sword worn edge-up in the belt; the word is not used as a personal name in Japan. Separately, Katana is a Giriama and Mijikenda name in coastal Kenya, given to a boy, with its own quite different history. Neither is confirmed as the source of the American given name.
Pronouncing Katana
kuh-TAH-nah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Japanese weights all three evenly.
Nicknames for Katana
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
- 202379 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2314reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −34.8%45 in 2025, from 69
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.
Katana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katana in Japanese — related form
- Katana in Giriama — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Katanas among us
people named Katana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 35,717 born in 2025 was named Katana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sharene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Katana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sharene climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sharene's path sketches the road Katana is walking now.
Katana 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 Katana is headed
Katana should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Katana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Katana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kat and Tana are both complete short forms that stand on their own.
- Open vowels throughout make it easy to say in most languages.
- Read correctly on sight by English speakers.
- The sword is the first association for nearly everyone, and it is a weapon.
- In Kenya the same spelling is a men's name, which occasionally surprises.
- The Japanese word is not a Japanese name, so the connection is looser than it looks.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Katana
Feminine · #3389 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Katanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Katana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Katana in 2025?
- Katana ranks #3389 among US girl names in 2025, with 45 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Katana?
- About 1 in every 35,717 US girls born in 2025 was named Katana — 45 in all.
- Will my child share the name Katana with classmates?
- Katana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Katana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Katheryn#3389 · Posey#3389 · Ronni#3389 · Gittel#3389 · Betsabe#3389 · Germany#3389 · Jaslene#3389 · Lovina#3389
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Katana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Katana 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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