Santana
Masculine · “from Santa Ana”
Santana is given to both — 7,785 boys and 5,941 girls since 1880. See Santana as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Santana began as a place and a saint: towns, chapels and hillsides across Spain and Portugal named for Santa Ana, and then the families who came from them. Said aloud it falls into an easy three-beat rhythm with the stress in the middle, the same shape English speakers already handle in Montana and Havana. It reaches American children as a surname first — familiar from music and sport long before it was used as a first name.
How old is the name Santana?
Santana first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Santana is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,500 people named Santana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Santana most popular?
Santana peaked in 2020, reaching #542 nationally. Today it ranks #855, 313 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hannah to Santana
The story of Santana
Santana is a contraction of Santa Ana, Saint Anne, the mother of Mary in Christian tradition. Devotion to her spread widely across medieval Iberia, and dozens of villages, parishes and hermitages took her name; people who came from those places were recorded as Santana or Sant'Ana, and the surname settled into Spain, Portugal and, later, Latin America and Brazil. It traveled to the United States as a family name, which is where most American ears first met it. Its use as a given name here is recent — a surname promoted to a first name, in the same tradition that produced Sawyer and Marley.
Meaning
from Santa Ana — Saint Anne
The saint's name behind it, Anne, goes back to the Hebrew Hannah, 'grace' or 'favor'.
How the name formed
- Hannah
- Anna
- Ana
- Santa Ana
- Santana
Related forms: Santana · Sant'Ana · Santa Ana · Sant'Anna · Santa Anna
Pronouncing Santana
san-TAN-uh
That is the usual English pronunciation. In Spanish and Portuguese it is closer to sahn-TAH-nah, with fuller a-vowels; both are heard in the US and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Santana
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 2021489 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #542reached in 2020
- Change vs 2023
- −29.3%285 in 2025, from 403
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.
Santana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Santana in Spanish — same name
- Sant'Ana in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Santa Ana in Spanish — related form
- Sant'Anna in Italian — related form
- Santa Anna in Catalan — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Santanas among us
people named Santana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,993 born in 2025 was named Santana
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 Jedediah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Santana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jedediah climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jedediah's path sketches the road Santana is walking now.
Santana 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 Santana is headed
Santana 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.
Santana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Santana in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and already recognizable to most Americans as a surname, so it rarely needs repeating or explaining.
- Works without adjustment in English, Spanish and Portuguese — the same letters, only a slight shift in vowels.
- A documented line back to Saint Anne, giving the name a traditional religious root under a modern surname-style sound.
- Has ready-made short forms — Santi, Tana — that are already in real use rather than improvised.
- The association with Latin rock is strong for many listeners, and the name may register as a band or a surname before it registers as a boy. That fades with a person in front of it, but it is the first thing some people will say.
- Santana is given to girls as well as boys in the US. It is one name traveling both ways rather than two names meeting, but a boy named Santana may occasionally be assumed female on paper.
- The first syllable reads as 'Santa', which some children will find funny for a season, usually in December.
- It is uncommon enough that a Santana will likely be the only one in his class — pleasant for most families, though it means the name always draws a moment of attention at introductions.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Santana to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Santana
Masculine · #855 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Santanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,500 people named Santana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Santana in 2025?
- Santana ranks #855 among US boy names in 2025, with 285 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Santana?
- About 1 in every 5,993 US boys born in 2025 was named Santana — 285 in all.
- Will my child share the name Santana with classmates?
- Santana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Santana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zechariah#855 · Evren#857 · Bear#853 · Jeremias#853 · Avyaan#858 · Rex#859 · Eddie#860 · Ramon#850
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Santana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Santana and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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