Tanna
Feminine
A tanna, in Jewish tradition, is one of the rabbinic teachers whose opinions make up the Mishnah — the generations between the destruction of the Temple and about the year two hundred. The American name is not that word. It arrived with a wave of names that sounded like it, and the coincidence is a coincidence.
How old is the name Tanna?
Tanna first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Tanna alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 3,000 people named Tanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tanna most popular?
Tanna peaked in 1979, reaching #1349 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Tanna
The name's actual company is easy to identify. It appears in the American record in the nineteen-forties, rises slowly, and peaks in the nineteen-seventies alongside Tanya, Tana, Tawana and Tania — a group of names all built on the same opening syllable and distinguished by their endings. Tanya itself came into English from Russian literature; the rest of the group came from the pattern rather than from Russia. Tanna is one of the pattern names: the doubled n keeps the first vowel short, which separates it from Tana, and everything else about it is shared with its neighbors.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The American name has no meaning. The Aramaic word it happens to match means a repeater or teacher, from a root about repeating oral teaching, and no line connects the two.
Pronouncing Tanna
TAN-uh
Two syllables with the weight at the front, the first with the vowel of ran. The single-n spelling gives a long a instead.
Nicknames for Tanna
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 198081 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1349reached in 1979
- Change vs 2021
- −28.6%5 in 2023, from 7
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.
Tannas among us
people named Tanna 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
Tanna 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
- Five letters, two syllables, and no sound an English speaker has to learn.
- The doubled consonant removes a real ambiguity about the first vowel.
- It sits comfortably in front of almost any surname.
- Tana, Tanya and Tawna are near neighbors and will be written instead.
- There is no inherited meaning; the resemblance to an Aramaic word is accidental.
- It reads as a name of the second half of the twentieth century.
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Tanna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Tannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Tanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tanna in 2025?
- Tanna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Tanna with classmates?
- Tanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tanna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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