Lana
Feminine
Lana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 57,434 girls against 15 boys since 1880.
Two syllables, four letters, and no ambiguity on the page — Lana is spelled the way it sounds in nearly every language that uses the Latin alphabet. It reached English partly through Hollywood, where an actress took it as a screen name in the late 1930s, and partly through Slavic families who had been shortening Svetlana to Lana for generations. It has stayed in quiet, unbroken use ever since, and it still charts in France.
How old is the name Lana?
Lana first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Lana alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 50,000 people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lana most popular?
Lana peaked in 1948, reaching #188 nationally. Today it ranks #406, 218 places below that high. See the whole 1948 chart.
Where it comes from
From Svetlana to Lana
The story of Lana
The Slavic line is the best documented: Svetlana became widespread in Russia in the nineteenth century, and Lana is its ordinary short form, still used that way in Russia, Croatia and Serbia, where Lana also stands alone as a full given name. In English, the name came in largely by a different door — as a clipping of Alana, the feminine of the Irish and Breton name Alan, and then through American film, when a young contract actress was given Lana as a screen name in the late 1930s. Its American high point followed in the years just after the Second World War. Separately, Hawaiian carries lana as a word of its own, which is why the name turns up in Pacific naming traditions with no connection to Svetlana at all.
Meaningscholars disagree
Depends on which Lana: 'light' through Svetlana, or 'calm, buoyant' in Hawaiian
Several genuine roads meet at this spelling. In Russian and across the Balkans, Lana is the everyday short form of Svetlana, from a root meaning 'light'; it also clips Milana and Alana. In Hawaiian, lana is a word meaning 'floating, buoyant, calm'. In Latin and its descendants — Italian, Spanish — lana simply means 'wool'. None of these cancels the others; the name arrived in English from more than one direction.
How the name formed
- Svetlana
- Lana
Related forms: Лана · Lana · Svetlana · Alana · Alanna · Milana
Pronouncing Lana
LAH-nuh
LAH-nuh is the dominant pronunciation in the US and matches the Slavic original. Some American families say LAN-uh, rhyming with Anna. Both are established, so it is worth deciding which one you mean early — people will ask.
Nicknames for Lana
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 19481,465 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #188reached in 1948
- Change vs 2022
- +2.4%768 in 2025, from 750
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.
Lana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Лана in Russian — transliteration
- Lana in Croatian / Serbian — same name
- Svetlana in Russian — related form
- Alana in English / Irish — related form
- Alanna in English — spelling variant
- Milana in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Lanas among us
people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,093 born in 2025 was named Lana
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 Jewell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jewell climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jewell's path sketches the road Lana is walking now.
Lana 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 Lana is headed
Lana 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.
Lana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lana 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, and short enough that no one needs it repeated or abbreviated on a form.
- Works unchanged in Russian, Croatian, Serbian and French, where it also currently charts — useful in a bilingual family.
- A long, level record rather than a fashion spike: represented across several generations of living Americans, not concentrated in one.
- Familiar to almost everyone without being crowded — a child named Lana will likely be the only one in her school.
- Two live pronunciations, LAH-nuh and LAN-uh, means a lifetime of small corrections unless you are relaxed about either.
- The singer Lana Del Rey is the strongest current association in the US, and for some listeners the name will call up her music before anything else.
- In Spanish and Italian, lana is the ordinary word for wool. Harmless, but Spanish-speaking relatives will notice it.
- It sits close to Lena, Layna, Alana and Dana, so expect the occasional mix-up in writing.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lana 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.
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Already decided on Lana? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lana
Feminine · #406 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 50,000 people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lana in 2025?
- Lana ranks #406 among US girl names in 2025, with 768 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lana?
- About 1 in every 2,093 US girls born in 2025 was named Lana — 768 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lana with classmates?
- Lana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carolina#405 · Brynn#407 · Raven#404 · Angela#408 · Annalise#409 · Taylor#403 · Mckenna#410 · Logan#402
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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