Faina
Feminine Russian diminutive of the name Fevronia, meaning "lucky".
Name Census estimates that about 39 living Americans carry the first name Faina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Faina today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Faina births was 2003 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Faina. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Faina. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
39
~ 1 in 8,788,573 Americans
Peak year
2003
7 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2014 SSA rank
#17,387
Tracked since 1995
Census
Faina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,496 people with the first name Faina, which placed it at #9,326 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
#9,326
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,496 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Faina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faina is White at 95.4%. The next largest groups are Black (1.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Faina 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 Faina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.4% · 1,427
- Black or African American1.9% · 28
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 11
- Two or more races0.7% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 3
Popularity
Faina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Faina from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 19 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Faina 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 Faina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Faina
The name Faina has its origins in ancient Greek, where it derived from the word "phaino," meaning "to shine" or "to bring to light." It was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times but gained popularity during the Byzantine era, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition.
In the 4th century, Saint Faina of Constantinople was a notable bearer of this name. She was a devout Christian who lived a life of asceticism and is revered as a martyr for her faith. Her story and the veneration of her relics helped to spread the name throughout the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Europe.
Another early recorded instance of the name Faina can be found in the 9th century, when a Bulgarian noblewoman named Faina was mentioned in the "Annals of Fulda," a historical chronicle written by Frankish monks. This suggests that the name had also gained some traction in the Slavic regions during the Middle Ages.
During the Renaissance period, the name Faina was occasionally used in Italy, likely influenced by its Greek roots. One notable bearer was Faina Savorgnan, an Italian noblewoman and patroness of the arts who lived in the 16th century and was known for her support of artists and intellectuals.
In the 19th century, the Russian writer and playwright Alexander Ostrovsky featured a character named Faina in his play "The Thunderstorm," which helped to popularize the name in Russia. Another notable Russian bearer of the name was Faina Ranevskaya (1896-1984), a renowned actress and comedienne who was highly celebrated for her performances in both theater and film.
Beyond these examples, the name Faina has maintained a consistent, albeit relatively uncommon, presence throughout history in various parts of Europe and the former Soviet Union. Its association with the concept of "shining" or "illumination" has endured, lending the name a sense of radiance and brightness.
People
Faina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Faina as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Faina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Faina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Faina 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 8,788,573 US residents.
Is Faina a common name?
We classify Faina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 50.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 40 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Faina most popular?
The single biggest year for Faina was 2003, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Faina is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Faina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,496 people with the name Faina, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,326 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 Faina 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 Faina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Faina appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,496 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 Faina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faina is White at 95.4%. The next largest groups are Black (1.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Faina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Faina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.4% (1,427 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 Faina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Faina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Faina 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 Faina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Faina 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 Faina 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 many people are called Faina?
You can see how many Americans are named Faina on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.