Lanna
Feminine
Lanna's American peak in 1947 has a plain explanation: Lana Turner was one of the most photographed women in the world in the 1940s, and the sound she made famous produced a run of spellings. Lana itself came to her from a studio; her given name was Julia. Lanna is the doubled-consonant version, and it rises and falls with her.
How old is the name Lanna?
Lanna first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Lanna alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 1,900 people named Lanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lanna most popular?
Lanna peaked in 1947, reaching #1525 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 4,392 places below that high. See the whole 1947 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lana to Lanna
Our story of Lanna
Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s was, among other things, a name factory, and it worked in a specific way. Studios renamed their contract players for sound rather than for meaning: short, open, memorable, easy to set in a headline. Julia Jean Turner became Lana; Frances Gumm became Judy Garland; Marion Morrison became John Wayne. What is interesting about the ones that stuck is that they entered the general name pool with no history at all — a studio executive's preference became, within a decade, thousands of real children's names. Lana is one of the clearest cases. It rises from almost nothing in the late 1930s, peaks with its bearer's fame, and generates the usual fan of spellings on the way: Lana, Lanna, Lanah, Alanna. None of them has an etymology, and all of them have a date.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not established. Lana has at least three plausible sources and no single one is documented for the American name: a shortening of Alana, which is the feminine of Alan and has its own contested etymology; a Russian short form of Svetlana, from svet, 'light'; and the Spanish and Italian word lana, 'wool'. The doubled n in Lanna is an American spelling choice with no bearing on any of these. A bearer can accurately say the name is modern and the source is not settled.
How the name formed
- Lana
- Lanna
Related forms: Lana · Lana · Alanna
Pronouncing Lanna
LAN-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the short a of pan — which is what the doubled n signals. Lana with one n is more often said LAH-nuh with an open a, so the two spellings do differ slightly in practice.
Nicknames for Lanna
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 201447 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1525reached in 1947
- Change vs 2023
- −9.1%20 in 2025, from 22
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.
Lanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lana in English — spelling variant
- Lana in Russian — related form
- Alanna in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Lannas among us
people named Lanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Lanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lanna
- #5917
- Lanna on the 2025 chart
- #370
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lanna went to 20 girls in 2025, but Lana and Lanah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 806, which makes it the 370th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,547 places above the chart.
- Lana768
- Lanna20
- Lanah18
About 1 girl in 1,994 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Lanna 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 Neomi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Neomi climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neomi's path sketches the road Lanna is walking now.
Lanna 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
Lanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The doubled n makes the vowel unambiguous, which the single-n spelling does not.
- It is short, soft and easy for a young child to say and write.
- The sound is thoroughly familiar and needs no explanation.
- Lana is far the more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
- There is no documented meaning to give when asked.
- Its American curve is tightly 1940s, which dates a bearer closely.
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What they receive
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Lanna
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Lanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lanna?
- Lanna is one of 3 recorded spellings. Lana is the more common one — 768 births in 2025 against 20 for Lanna.
- How popular is the name Lanna in 2025?
- Lanna ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lanna?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Lanna — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lanna with classmates?
- Lanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lanna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lanna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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