Kiana
Feminine · “Either "divine" by way of Diana”
Kiana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 26,694 girls against 19 boys since 1880.
Kiana arrives in English through two doors at once — the Hawaiian language, where a K stands in for the D of Diana, and Persian, where Kiana belongs to the family of names built on Kian. It has been on American records since the early 1960s, quietly at first, and it moves in the mouth like Diana and Ariana do: three syllables, open vowels, nothing hard in it. The spelling also sits on the map of northwest Alaska, where a village on the Kobuk River carries it.
How old is the name Kiana?
Kiana first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Kiana alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 26,500 people named Kiana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kiana most popular?
Kiana peaked in 1996, reaching #190 nationally. Today it ranks #743, 553 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Kiana appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kiana
The Hawaiian route is the best documented in American use: missionary-era Hawaiian orthography settled on a small consonant set, so imported names were reshaped — Diana came out Kiana, Dorothy came out Kolokia. Persian speakers arrived at the same string of letters by an entirely different road, through the ancient Kayanian dynastic name Kian, and Kiana is in ordinary use in Iran and in Iranian families abroad. In the United States the name appeared on the birth records in the early 1960s, grew through the following decades, and reached its widest use in the 1990s. Its strongest footing has been in California, Texas and Florida — states where Hawaiian and Persian naming traditions both have long-established communities.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "divine" by way of Diana, or a Persian name from the root Kian
The most-cited reading treats Kiana as the Hawaiian rendering of Diana — Hawaiian has no D, and K regularly takes its place, so Diana becomes Kiana; Diana itself goes back to a Latin root for daylight and the divine. The Persian reading is independent and just as real: Kiana (کیانا) belongs to the group of names formed from Kian, tied to the ancient Kayanian kings and often glossed as "of nature" or "elemental". A third, smaller path treats it as a feminine elaboration of the Irish Cian/Kian. These are separate origins that met at one spelling, not versions of one story.
Pronouncing Kiana
kee-AH-nuh
That is the dominant American pronunciation and the one both the Hawaiian and Persian traditions support. Some English speakers reach for ky-AN-uh on first sight, rhyming the middle with "Anna" — a correction most Kianas learn to make early and briefly.
Nicknames for Kiana
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
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 19961,585 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #190reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −6.4%366 in 2025, from 391
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.
Kiana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kiana in Hawaiian — same name
- Kiyana in Persian — transliteration
- Kianna in English — spelling variant
- Keana in English — spelling variant
- Diana in Latin — related form
- Kian in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kianas among us
people named Kiana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,391 born in 2025 was named Kiana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kiana
- #743
- Kiana on the 2025 chart
- #446
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kiana went to 366 girls in 2025, but Kianna, Kyanna and Kiyana and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 10 spellings went to 617, which makes it the 446th most-given girls’ name of the year — 297 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 2,605 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,391 for Kiana 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 Gretchen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kiana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gretchen climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gretchen's path sketches the road Kiana is walking now.
Kiana is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kiana is headed
Kiana 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.
Kiana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kiana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two independent living traditions — Hawaiian and Persian — use this exact spelling, so it is at home in more than one community.
- Rhythmically it sits beside Diana, Ariana and Liana: three syllables, stress in the middle, an open ending that carries well when called across a room.
- Established short forms already in use: Kiki, Kia, Ki.
- On record in the United States for more than sixty years, with a long climb and a broad base of adult bearers, so it is familiar to the ear without being crowded.
- The variants are many — Kianna, Kiyana, Keana, Qiana — so expect to spell it aloud fairly often, even though the pronunciation itself is stable.
- If you want the name specifically for its Hawaiian or specifically for its Persian story, know that the other reading exists and that people will sometimes assume the one you did not mean.
- Current use is light enough that a Kiana is likely to be the only one in her grade, while sharing the name with a good many women now in their twenties and thirties — an unusual and rather comfortable position.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Kiana to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Kiana? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kiana
Feminine · #743 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kianas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 26,500 people named Kiana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kiana?
- Kiana is the most-used spelling in US records — 366 of the 617 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kianna, Kyanna, Kiyana, Kyana, Kiannah, Kiyanna and Khiana.
- How popular is the name Kiana in 2025?
- Kiana ranks #743 among US girl names in 2025, with 366 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kiana?
- About 1 in every 4,391 US girls born in 2025 was named Kiana — 366 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kiana with classmates?
- Kiana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kiana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Valery#743 · Kensley#741 · Emerald#741 · Maisy#745 · Penny#740 · Araceli#746 · Mikayla#746 · Dani#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kiana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kiana and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle