Lyanna
Feminine
Lyanna sits on the familiar bones of Liana — three easy syllables, a soft ending shared with Ariana and Eliana — with a y where the i used to be. It appeared quietly in American birth records long before the fiction that made it recognizable, and then found a far wider audience through George R. R. Martin's Westeros, where two women carry it. Most people can say it correctly the first time, and almost none will have met another.
How old is the name Lyanna?
Lyanna first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Lyanna is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,700 people named Lyanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lyanna most popular?
Lyanna peaked in 2019, reaching #605 nationally. Today it ranks #877, 272 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lyanna appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Lyanna
Lyanna turns up in American birth records well before the books that made it widely recognized, in the same stretch of decades when Liana, Lianna and Leanna were all in use — names tied to French liane, a climbing vine, and also serving as short forms of Juliana and Eliana. No etymologist has given Lyanna a separate origin; the y looks like the kind of respelling English-speaking parents have long applied to Lyla, Alyssa and Madelyn. Its wider recognition came through fiction: Martin gave the name to two characters in A Song of Ice and Fire — Lyanna Stark, whose story sits behind the whole plot, and Lyanna Mormont of Bear Island — and the HBO adaptation carried both to a mass audience through the 2010s. The climb on the chart beside this text belongs almost entirely to the years after that.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No etymology has been established for this spelling. What is documented sits next door: Liana and Lianna are traced to French liane, a climbing vine, and are also used as short forms of Juliana, Eliana and Liliana. Lyanna shares their sound without a separate recorded origin of its own.
Pronouncing Lyanna
lee-AN-uh
Stress falls on the middle syllable. Some families say ly-AN-uh, with a first syllable like "lie", which the spelling invites; the version heard in the HBO series is closer to lee-AH-nuh. Worth deciding early which one you will correct people to.
Nicknames for Lyanna
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 2019500 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #605reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +11.7%305 in 2025, from 273
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.
Lyanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Liana in Italian — related form
- Liane in French — related form
- Lianna in English — spelling variant
- Liana in Russian — transliteration
- Liana in Romanian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Lyannas among us
people named Lyanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,270 born in 2025 was named Lyanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lyanna
- #877
- Lyanna on the 2025 chart
- #197
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lyanna went to 305 girls in 2025, but Liana, Liyana and Lianna and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 1,675, which makes it the 197th most-given girls’ name of the year — 680 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 960 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,270 for Lyanna 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 Dorinda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lyanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dorinda climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dorinda's path sketches the road Lyanna is walking now.
Lyanna 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 Lyanna is headed
Lyanna should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Lyanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lyanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads phonetically for most English speakers, so it is usually pronounced right on first sight even by strangers.
- Sits inside a family of names people already know — Liana, Eliana, Liliana — so it sounds familiar rather than invented.
- Comes with ready-made short forms, including Anna, which stands on its own as a traditional name.
- The Liana form is in use across Italian, French, Russian and Romanian, so relatives abroad will find a version they recognize.
- It will be corrected to Liana, Lianna or Leanna for life. Expect to spell it out on every form and to see all three variants come back on mail.
- The Westeros connection is strong for anyone who followed the books or the series, and it will be the first thing many people mention. Both characters are admired ones, though Lyanna Stark's story is a tragic thread rather than a triumphant one.
- Two pronunciations circulate, lee-AN-uh and ly-AN-uh, and neither is wrong. Picking one and using it consistently saves a lot of small corrections.
- Almost everyone carrying this spelling right now is a child, so there is no adult generation of Lyannas to borrow familiarity from. She is likely to be the only one wherever she goes.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lyanna
Feminine · #877 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lyannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Lyanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lyanna?
- Lyanna is one of 7 recorded spellings. Liana is the more common one — 801 births in 2025 against 305 for Lyanna.
- How popular is the name Lyanna in 2025?
- Lyanna ranks #877 among US girl names in 2025, with 305 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lyanna?
- About 1 in every 5,270 US girls born in 2025 was named Lyanna — 305 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lyanna with classmates?
- Lyanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lyanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Giovanna#878 · Tiffany#878 · Siya#878 · Kahlani#875 · Kylee#875 · Colbie#881 · Emi#881 · Odette#881
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lyanna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lyanna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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