Santanna
Feminine · “Saint Anne”
Santanna is given to both — 847 girls and 105 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Santanna runs two Spanish words together and doubles a letter neither of them has — the saint's name is two words in Spanish and one in this spelling.
How old is the name Santanna?
Santanna first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Santanna alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 800 people named Santanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Santanna most popular?
Santanna peaked in 1986, reaching #1691 nationally. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Santanna
The fused version has an American life of its own. The hot dry winds that blow off the desert into southern California are called the Santa Ana winds, after the canyon they come through, and the phrase is in every weather forecast there for weeks at a time. That is where most Americans meet the sound, which is why the name reads as Californian rather than religious to people who have never thought about it. The doubled letter is the tell that a parent was naming a child rather than a saint: it takes the phrase out of Spanish and turns it into a single English word with nothing behind it.
Meaning
Saint Anne
The Spanish is santa Ana, the feminine form of saint plus the name, which is how the mother of Mary is named across the Spanish-speaking world. Fusing the two words and doubling the n is an American spelling decision, not a Spanish one.
Pronouncing Santanna
san-TAN-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Spanish says the two words separately, with a slight break.
Nicknames for Santanna
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
- 1984
- Most girls named
- 198669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1691reached in 1986
- Change vs 2021
- +33.3%8 in 2022, from 6
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.
Santanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Santana in Spanish — related form
Santannas among us
people named Santanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Santanna sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It contains a complete and very old name that can be used alone.
- It is read correctly on sight by anyone.
- The middle stress carries well.
- Spanish speakers will read it as two words run together.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, but a real minority are boys; either may be taken for the other.
- The wind and the musician are both likelier associations than the saint.
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Santanna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Santannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Santanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Santanna in 2025?
- Santanna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Santanna with classmates?
- Santanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Santanna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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