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Shanna

Feminine · “God is gracious”

Shanna is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 28,284 girls against 88 boys since 1880.

1931high 1979
#11932 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare7 girls in 2025

Shanna is Irish John with an English feminine ending. Seán became Shawn and Shane on American paper, and Shanna is the -a form built on the second of those — a name assembled rather than inherited.

How old is the name Shanna?

Shanna first appears in US birth records in 1931 — 94 years ago. The typical Shanna alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 27,000 people named Shanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Shanna most popular?

Shanna peaked in 1978, reaching #149 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,783 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.

Compare this nameMore “S” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Shanna

Seán is the Irish form of John, and Irish emigration carried it into English-speaking countries where it was respelled phonetically as Shaun, Shawn and — from the vocative form — Shane. American families then built feminines on all three: Shawna, Shauna, Shanna, Shanda. The pattern is the ordinary English one of adding -a, and Shanna rose through the 1960s and 1970s to a peak in the late 1970s.

Meaningscholars disagree

God is gracious

Read through Shane and Seán, the meaning is the Hebrew Yohanan, 'the Lord is gracious', reached via the French Jean. An alternative reading treats it as a form of the Hebrew Shoshannah, 'lily', which is the parent of Susan — a quite different name arriving at a similar sound. The -a ending itself carries no meaning.

How the name formed

  1. Yohanan
  2. Seán
  3. Shane
  4. Shanna

Related forms: Seána · Shauna · Shana

Pronouncing Shanna

SHAN-uh

Two syllables, stress on the first, the a as in 'ban'. Some families say SHAH-nuh with a broad a; both are current.

Nicknames for Shanna

Moderate

ShanThe one-syllable clipping, used in speech more than in writing
NanThe back half alone, and a name in its own right with a separate history
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1931–20252k89701,793719312025

US babies named Shanna per year from 1931 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#1491930s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1931
Most girls named
19791,793 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#149reached in 1978
Change vs 2023
0.0%7 in 2025, from 7
Shanna sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1979, with 1,793 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Shanna in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Seána in Irish — related form
  • Shauna in English — related form
  • Shana in English — spelling variant

Shannas among us

27,000

people named Shanna are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Shanna

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Shanna

#11932
Shanna on the 2025 chart
#928
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Shanna went to 7 girls in 2025, but Shana is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 928th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,004 places above the chart.

About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Shanna 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

III

Is it right for you

The Bette test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bette climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bette's path sketches the road Shanna is walking now.

40%chance Shanna will feel dated by 2040
Shanna, aligned on its peakBette· peak 1923not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-40 yrs+70 yrsBette · #11978Shanna today
Shanna today is about where Bette stood in 1970 — 47 years past a #148-sized peak. By 1985, Bette had settled around #7229.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Shanna 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

Shanna beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Shanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Shannathis name7#11932Vina7#11932Retta7#11932Missouri7#11932Iola7#11932

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • It reaches the largest name family in Europe by a genuinely Irish route.
  • The spelling is fully phonetic for English readers.
  • Two clean syllables with no pronunciation trap.
What to consider
  • Shanna, Shana and Shauna are all in use and easily confused.
  • The flat-a and broad-a pronunciations are both established.
  • The name is closely dated to the 1970s.

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Shanna

Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Shannas are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,000 people named Shanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Shanna?
Shanna is one of 2 recorded spellings. Shana is the more common one — 25 births in 2025 against 7 for Shanna.
How popular is the name Shanna in 2025?
Shanna ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Shanna?
About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Shanna — 7 in all.
Will my child share the name Shanna with classmates?
Shanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Shanna

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shanna? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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