Inna
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "truly", "verily", or "indeed".
Name Census estimates that about 535 living Americans carry the first name Inna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Inna today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Inna births was 2015 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Inna. 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 Inna with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
535
~ 1 in 640,662 Americans
Peak year
2015
27 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,719
Tracked since 1931
Census
Inna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,764 people with the first name Inna, which placed it at #2,926 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
#2,926
National first-name rank
People counted
7.8K
7,764 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Inna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Inna is White at 95.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.0%) and Hispanic (1.3%). 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 Inna 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 Inna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.1% · 7,385
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 156
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 104
- Black or African American0.8% · 59
- Two or more races0.7% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 2
Popularity
Inna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Inna from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 191 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Inna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Inna 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 Inna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Innas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Washington, Texas recorded the most babies named Inna, while New York, Texas, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Inna
The name Inna has its origins in several cultures and languages, with different meanings and historical significance. It is derived from the Hebrew name Channah, which means "grace" or "favor". In Russian and other Slavic languages, Inna is a diminutive form of the name Inessa, which is derived from the Greek name Ines, meaning "chaste" or "pure".
In ancient Hebrew texts, the name Channah appears in the Old Testament, where it is the name of the mother of the prophet Samuel. This association with a significant figure in religious scriptures likely contributed to the popularity of the name among Jewish communities.
The earliest recorded use of the name Inna dates back to the medieval period in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Inna of Sweden, a Swedish princess who lived in the 11th century and was the wife of Sviatopolk II, the Grand Prince of Kiev.
Another notable historical figure named Inna was Inna of Logodor, a Romanian princess who lived in the 14th century and was the daughter of Mircea the Elder, the ruler of Wallachia. She played a significant role in the political and cultural life of the region during her time.
In the 19th century, the name Inna gained popularity in Russian literature, with several notable characters bearing this name. One of the most famous was Inna Grazhdanova, the protagonist of the novel "What is to be Done?" by the Russian writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky, published in 1863.
Other notable individuals named Inna include Inna Vladimirovna Churikova, a Soviet and Russian actress born in 1943, and Inna Shevchenko, a Ukrainian activist and leader of the feminist protest group Femen, born in 1990.
The name Inna has also been used in various forms and spellings across different cultures and languages, such as Ina in German, Ine in Dutch, and Inge in Scandinavian languages, all sharing similar meanings and roots.
People
Inna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Inna 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
Inna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Inna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 535 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Inna 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 640,662 US residents.
Is Inna a common name?
We classify Inna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 550 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Inna most popular?
The single biggest year for Inna was 2015, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Inna 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 Inna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,764 people with the name Inna, or 2.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,926 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 Inna 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 Inna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Inna appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,760 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 Inna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Inna is White at 95.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.0%) and Hispanic (1.3%). 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 Inna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Inna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.1% (7,385 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 Inna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Inna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Inna 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 Inna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Inna 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 Inna 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 named Inna?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.