Sana
Feminine · Arabic roots · “Radiance”
Sana is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,873 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Sana is four letters and two open vowels, the kind of name that arrives intact in almost any language that tries it. It belongs to classical Arabic, where it is written سناء and carries the sense of radiance, and it has been quietly on US records for a full century, with most of its bearers in California, Texas and New York.
How old is the name Sana?
Sana first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Sana alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 4,800 people named Sana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sana most popular?
Sana peaked in 2022, reaching #1309 nationally. Today it ranks #1427, 118 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Sana appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From سناء / ثناء (Arabic) to Sana
The story of Sana
The Arabic Sana comes from a root meaning to shine or rise high, and appears in classical Arabic writing long before it became a common given name across the Arab world. A second, unrelated Arabic word — thanāʾ, praise — traveled with Islam into Persian and then Urdu, where it is also written Sana in the Latin alphabet, which is why two Sanas can have two entirely different words behind them. The name reached American records early in the twentieth century and has been present, in small numbers, ever since. Japan has its own Sana, built from kanji rather than borrowed from Arabic, so the spelling now arrives in the US by more than one road.
Meaningscholars disagree
Radiance, brilliance — or, from a different Arabic root, praise
Two real Arabic words land on the same English spelling. سناء (sanāʾ), from a root for shining and elevation, means brilliance or splendor. ثناء (thanāʾ), used widely in Urdu-speaking families and rendered Sana or Sanaa, means praise or commendation — it is the same word behind Turkish Sena. Japanese Sana is a separate matter again: the meaning depends entirely on which kanji a family chooses, so no single reading applies.
How the name formed
- سناء / ثناءArabic
- Sanaa
- Sana
Related forms: سناء / Sanaa · ثنا / Sana · Sena · Sana · Sanaa · 紗奈 / Sana
Pronouncing Sana
SAH-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, both vowels open as in 'father'. English speakers sometimes reach for SAN-uh, rhyming with Anna, and both are heard in the US. Worth deciding early which one your family uses, since the spelling does not settle it.
Nicknames for Sana
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
- 1923
- Most girls named
- 2022180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1309reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −0.7%151 in 2025, from 152
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.
Sana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- سناء / Sanaa in Arabic — transliteration
- ثنا / Sana in Urdu — same name
- Sena in Turkish — related form
- Sana in Persian — same name
- Sanaa in English — spelling variant
- 紗奈 / Sana in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Sanas among us
people named Sana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,644 born in 2025 was named Sana
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sana
- #1427
- Sana on the 2025 chart
- #714
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sana went to 151 girls in 2025, but Sanaa and Sanna are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 248, which makes it the 714th most-given girls’ name of the year — 713 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 6,481 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,644 for Sana 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 Tomekia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tomekia climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tomekia's path sketches the road Sana is walking now.
Sana is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sana is headed
Sana should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Sana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sana 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 in most languages — four letters, no silent parts, and nothing for a form field to mangle.
- Travels intact across Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Turkish and Japanese-speaking settings without needing a second version.
- Short enough to need no nickname, which keeps the name a child is called the same as the name on the certificate.
- A continuous presence in American records across generations rather than a recent invention.
- Sanaa, with the doubled a, is both a common spelling of the same name and the capital of Yemen. Expect occasional correction in either direction, and pick one spelling firmly.
- In Spanish, sana is an everyday word meaning healthy or she heals, and it opens a well-known children's rhyme. In Finnish it means word. None of this is unkind, but in the states where Sana is most common, Spanish speakers will hear the word as well as the name.
- The two pronunciations, SAH-nah and SAN-uh, both circulate in English. A child will likely spend some of her life gently repeating the one you chose.
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What they receive
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Sana
Feminine · Arabic roots · #1427 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,800 people named Sana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sana?
- Sana is the most-used spelling in US records — 151 of the 248 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Sanaa and Sanna.
- How popular is the name Sana in 2025?
- Sana ranks #1427 among US girl names in 2025, with 151 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sana?
- About 1 in every 10,644 US girls born in 2025 was named Sana — 151 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sana with classmates?
- Sana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Khadijah#1427 · Roslyn#1427 · Evalyn#1427 · Desiree#1427 · Katerina#1427 · Aracely#1427 · Zarah#1427 · Camden#1427
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sana and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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