Keana
Feminine
Keana rose in the mid-1990s, and it is difficult to look at that curve without noticing what else was happening: Keanu Reeves became a global star between 1991 and 1995, and every name with that opening moved. Keana is the female form that the moment produced — sometimes as a genuine Hawaiian name, more often as a reshaped Keanu.
How old is the name Keana?
Keana first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Keana alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 2,700 people named Keana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keana most popular?
Keana peaked in 1995, reaching #1031 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 5,807 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ke anu to Keana
The story of Keana
The Hawaiian source is real: ke is the definite article and the name is a normal two-word phrase turned into a name, a very common Hawaiian pattern. What is American is the feminisation. English has no rule for making a Hawaiian name female, so it borrowed the one it uses for everything — end in -a — and applied it, producing Keana, Keanna and Kiana within a few years of each other. Kiana had its own separate push from a 1980s fitness personality, which is why the two curves are close but not identical.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hawaiian "the coolness" or "the cave", depending on the vowel length
Hawaiian ke anu is "the coolness" and ke ana is "the cave"; Keanu is documented as the former. Keana as a female name may be either, may be an English feminisation of Keanu that no longer means anything, or may be an unrelated Irish-derived form beside Kiana and Ciana. The American record does not distinguish these, and asserting a single Hawaiian gloss for every bearer would be inventing information.
How the name formed
- ke anu
- Keanu
- Keana
Related forms: Keanu · Kiana · Ciana
Pronouncing Keana
kee-AH-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Hawaiian would give keh-AH-nah with all vowels short and clear; American English lengthens the first and reduces the last. Keana and Kiana are said the same way by most speakers.
Nicknames for Keana
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 1995177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1031reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- +6.7%16 in 2025, from 15
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.
Keana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Keanu in Hawaiian — related form
- Kiana in English — related form
- Ciana in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Keanas among us
people named Keana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Keana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Keana
- #6838
- Keana on the 2025 chart
- #928
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Keana went to 16 girls in 2025, but Keanna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 928th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,910 places above the chart.
- Keana16
- Keanna16
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Keana 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 Willetta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Willetta climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Willetta's path sketches the road Keana is walking now.
Keana 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
Keana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The rhythm matches Ariana, Briana and Liana, so it needs no introduction.
- It offers a genuine Hawaiian connection for families who have one.
- Every letter is sounded and the spelling is the shortest of its group.
- Keana, Keanna, Kiana and Kianna are four spellings of one sound; expect all four to be guessed.
- The Hawaiian meaning belongs to Keanu properly, not to this feminised form.
- The mid-1990s peak dates it fairly precisely.
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What they receive
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Keana
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Keana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Keana?
- Keana is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 32 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Keanna.
- How popular is the name Keana in 2025?
- Keana ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keana?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Keana — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keana with classmates?
- Keana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Camia#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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