Ianna
Greek feminine form of Iannis, derived from Ioannes meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 1,080 living Americans carry the first name Ianna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ianna today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ianna births was 2011 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ianna. 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 Ianna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ianna is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 317,365 Americans
Peak year
2011
59 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,497
Tracked since 1980
Census
Ianna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 880 people with the first name Ianna, which placed it at #13,642 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
#13,642
National first-name rank
People counted
880
880 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
34.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ianna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ianna is Black at 34.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.4%) and White (19.7%). 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 Ianna 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 Ianna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American34.4% · 303
- Hispanic or Latino29.4% · 259
- White19.7% · 173
- Two or more races9.4% · 83
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.0% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 9
Popularity
Ianna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ianna from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 419 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ianna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ianna 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 Ianna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iannas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Ianna, while Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ianna
The name Ianna has its origins in the Greek language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a feminine form of the male name Ioannes, derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Ianna was particularly popular in the Byzantine Empire and the Greek-speaking regions of the Mediterranean.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ianna can be found in the hagiography of Saint Ianna, a 9th-century Byzantine nun and abbess from Constantinople. She is celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church for her piety and monastic life.
In the 11th century, Ianna Radene was a prominent Byzantine noblewoman and the wife of the military commander Basil Argyros. She played a significant role in the political and social affairs of the Byzantine court during the reign of Emperor Michael VII Doukas.
During the Renaissance period, Ianna Angevin was an Italian noblewoman and the wife of King Robert of Naples. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of the humanist movement in the 14th century.
In the 16th century, Ianna Loukina was a Greek scholar and philosopher from the island of Crete. She was renowned for her knowledge of classical literature and her contributions to the intellectual life of the Renaissance.
Another notable figure was Ianna Tsitsikli, a 17th-century Greek poet and writer from the island of Chios. Her works explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition, and she is considered one of the most influential figures in early modern Greek literature.
While the name Ianna has its origins in ancient Greece, it has been adopted and used across various cultures throughout history, reflecting the enduring influence of Greek culture and language.
People
Ianna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ianna as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ianna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ianna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,080 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ianna 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 317,365 US residents.
Is Ianna a common name?
We classify Ianna as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,096 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ianna most popular?
The single biggest year for Ianna was 2011, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ianna is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ianna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 880 people with the name Ianna, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,642 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 Ianna 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 Ianna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ianna appears almost entirely female. Of the 874 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Ianna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ianna is Black at 34.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.4%) and White (19.7%). 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 Ianna most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ianna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.4% (303 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 Ianna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ianna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ianna 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 Ianna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ianna 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 Ianna 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 share the name Ianna?
Want to know how many Americans are named Ianna? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.