Arianna
A feminine name of Italian origin meaning "very holy one".
Name Census estimates that about 101,452 living Americans carry the first name Arianna. It sits at #195 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Arianna today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arianna births was 2014 (5,280 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arianna. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Arianna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Arianna is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 73 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Arianna is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
101K
~ 1 in 3,378 Americans
Peak year
2014
5,280 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2016 SSA rank
#195
Tracked since 1963
Census
Arianna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 80,588 people with the first name Arianna, which placed it at #658 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#658
National first-name rank
People counted
81K
80,588 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
26.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arianna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arianna is Hispanic at 42.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.8%) and Black (14.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arianna described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arianna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.2% · 34,013
- White32.8% · 26,396
- Black or African American14.4% · 11,577
- Two or more races7.5% · 6,024
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 1,895
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 683
Gender
Gender distribution for Arianna
Out of the 102,884 babies given the name Arianna since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Arianna as a male name
- Ranked #10,852 in 2016
- 6 male births in 2016
- Peak: 2005 (12 births)
Arianna as a female name
- Ranked #195 in 2024
- 1,562 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (5,274 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arianna appears almost entirely female. Of the 80,594 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Arianna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arianna from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 41,837 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arianna by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arianna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ariannas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Arianna, while Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,991 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arianna
The name Arianna has its origins in ancient Greek culture. It is a feminine form of the name Arian, derived from the Greek word "arion" meaning "lion". The earliest recorded use of the name can be traced back to ancient Greek literature, where it was used to refer to a character from Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology, Arianna was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and was known for her role in helping Theseus escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur. This mythological reference is likely one of the reasons the name gained popularity in ancient Greece.
One of the earliest recorded historical figures with the name Arianna was Arianna of Locri, a Greek lyric poet who lived in the 7th century BC. She is considered one of the earliest known female poets in ancient Greek literature.
During the Byzantine era, the name Arianna was also used by several members of the Byzantine aristocracy. One notable figure was Arianna Comnena, a Byzantine princess and historian who lived from 1083 to 1148. She is best known for writing the Alexiad, a detailed account of the life and reign of her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
In the Middle Ages, the name Arianna was also used by some Italian noble families. One example is Arianna d'Este, a member of the House of Este who lived from 1529 to 1593. She was a patron of the arts and was known for her support of the Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi.
In more recent history, the name Arianna has been used by several notable figures in the arts and literature. One example is Arianna Huffington, the Greek-American author, and co-founder of The Huffington Post, who was born in 1950.
Another notable figure with the name Arianna is the Italian actress Arianna Martedi, who was born in 1975 and has appeared in several popular Italian films and television shows.
People
Arianna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arianna as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arianna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arianna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 101,452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arianna going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,378 US residents.
Is Arianna a common name?
We classify Arianna as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 102,884 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arianna most popular?
The single biggest year for Arianna was 2014, when 5,280 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arianna is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arianna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 80,588 people with the name Arianna, or 26.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #658 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arianna in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arianna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arianna appears almost entirely female. Of the 80,594 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arianna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arianna is Hispanic at 42.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.8%) and Black (14.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arianna most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Arianna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.2% (34,013 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arianna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arianna a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Arianna in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Arianna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arianna in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arianna can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Arianna?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.