Yuna
Feminine · “No single meaning”
Yuna is two open syllables that land the same way in almost every language that has borrowed it — YOO-nah, nothing hidden, nothing to spell twice. It is a familiar girl's name in Japan and Korea, it turns up in France and especially Brittany, and it has been carried into English by a heroine of the 2001 role-playing game Final Fantasy X. Few names this short travel this far without changing shape.
How old is the name Yuna?
Yuna first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Yuna is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,000 people named Yuna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yuna most popular?
Yuna peaked in 2025, reaching #950 nationally. Today it ranks #950, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Yuna
Yuna reaches American birth records by more than one road. In Japan and Korea it is an established girl's name whose sense shifts with the characters used to write it, which is why two Yunas from the same city can mean quite different things by it. Separately, Yuna and the spelling Youna have been in use in France, particularly in Brittany, without a settled etymology behind them. In the United States the name has only recently gathered pace, and it is most strongly represented in California, New York and Texas — the states where Japanese, Korean and French-speaking families have long been most numerous.
Meaningscholars disagree
No single meaning — in Japanese and Korean the sense depends on the characters chosen to write it
Written in Japanese kanji, Yuna can be 優奈 (優 'gentle, excellent'), 由奈 (由 'reason, cause'), 結菜 (結 'to tie, to bind') and other combinations, with 奈 or 菜 largely carrying sound rather than sense. Korean 유나 likewise takes several different hanja. The name used in France and Brittany has no settled etymology of its own. So the honest answer is that Yuna means what the family writing it decides it means.
Pronouncing Yuna
YOO-nah
Two even syllables. Japanese and Korean speakers give the two beats almost equal weight; English speakers usually put a light stress on the first. Either way the spelling gives the sound away, which is unusual for a name with this much international reach.
Nicknames for Yuna
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
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 2025271 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #950reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +17.3%271 in 2025, from 231
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.
Yuna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 優奈 / ゆな in Japanese — transliteration
- 유나 in Korean — transliteration
- Yoona in Korean (romanized) — spelling variant
- Youna in French / Breton — spelling variant
- Yuina in Japanese — related form
- Yunako in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Yunas among us
people named Yuna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,931 born in 2025 was named Yuna
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 Amberly test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yuna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Amberly climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Amberly's path sketches the road Yuna is walking now.
Yuna is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Yuna is headed
Yuna 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.
Yuna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yuna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and spelled as it sounds in English — most people get it right on the first try, by ear or on paper.
- In genuine use in Japanese, Korean and French naming, so it stays pronounceable across three very different language traditions.
- Two syllables already, so it needs no nickname to be usable, while Yu and Yuni are available if a family wants one.
- Familiar without being common in the United States: recognizable to many people, yet rarely duplicated in a classroom.
- Several spellings compete for the same sound — Yuna, Yoona, Youna, and Yuina nearby — so expect to be asked which one, and to correct forms now and then.
- If the name will also be written in kanji or hanja, that choice is where the meaning actually gets decided; it is worth settling with family early rather than later.
- The American wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it here is still a child. That is only a matter of timing, not of fit — it simply means the name reads young for now.
- In a noisy room it can be heard as Yana, Luna or Yuma. A clear surname behind it usually settles the matter.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Yuna to the vote.
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What they receive
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Yuna
Feminine · #950 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yunas 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 Yuna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yuna in 2025?
- Yuna ranks #950 among US girl names in 2025, with 271 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yuna?
- About 1 in every 5,931 US girls born in 2025 was named Yuna — 271 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yuna with classmates?
- Yuna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yuna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Milena#950 · Sariah#950 · Zyla#950 · Sky#948 · Marcella#948 · Rosalee#954 · Madalyn#946 · Sunday#946
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yuna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yuna and another name?
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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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