Santina
Feminine · “little saint”
Santina is Italian for a small saint, and it was given the way many Italian names were: as a devotional word rather than a person's name, an affectionate diminutive of santa. It traveled to America with southern Italian families and was common among their daughters in the early twentieth century.
How old is the name Santina?
Santina first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Santina alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 1,800 people named Santina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Santina most popular?
Santina peaked in 1919, reaching #835 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 3,923 places below that high. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sancta to Santina
The story of Santina
Italian naming has always drawn directly on the vocabulary of the church, producing not only saints' names but words: Concetta for the Immaculate Conception, Assunta for the Assumption, Nunzia for the Annunciation, Santina for holiness itself. These names belonged especially to the south and to Sicily, and they came to the United States in enormous numbers between the eighteen-eighties and the nineteen-twenties. Many were anglicized within a generation, which is why so many American families have a Santina in the records and a Sandy or a Tina in the photographs.
Meaning
little saint; holy one
Italian santa, a female saint or a holy woman, from Latin sancta, with the diminutive ending -ina. The masculine Santino is built the same way from santo.
How the name formed
- sancta
- santa
- Santina
Related forms: Santa · Santina · Santinha
Pronouncing Santina
san-TEE-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the vowels clean and Italian. American English often flattens the last syllable to -nuh.
Nicknames for Santina
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 191865 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #835reached in 1919
- Change vs 2023
- +55.6%28 in 2025, from 18
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.
Santina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Santa in Italian — related form
- Santina in Spanish — same name
- Santinha in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Pennsylvania.
Santinas among us
people named Santina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Santina
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 Evia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Santina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Evia climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Evia's path sketches the road Santina is walking now.
Santina 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 Santina is headed
Santina 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.
Santina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Santina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Tina comes ready-made as a short form and is entirely familiar in English.
- The meaning is a single transparent word in Italian and Spanish alike.
- It carries an Italian-American family history that documents itself in the census records.
- It reads as distinctly of the early twentieth century, which is heritage to some families and age to others.
- The everyday form Tina is very widely used and will not be distinctive.
- Outside Italian communities the meaning is invisible and gets explained often.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Santina to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Santina
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Santinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Santina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Santina in 2025?
- Santina ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Santina?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Santina — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Santina with classmates?
- Santina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Santina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Ixchel#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Santina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Santina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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