Lana
A feminine name with Hispanic roots, meaning "little small one".
Name Census estimates that about 45,401 living Americans carry the first name Lana. It sits at #374 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lana today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lana births was 1948 (1,470 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lana. 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 Lana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
45K
~ 1 in 7,549 Americans
Peak year
1948
1,470 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1969 SSA rank
#374
Tracked since 1885
Census
Lana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 48,603 people with the first name Lana, which placed it at #923 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
#923
National first-name rank
People counted
49K
48,603 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lana is White at 77.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Lana 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 Lana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.8% · 37,791
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 2,813
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 2,775
- Two or more races5.3% · 2,592
- Black or African American4.5% · 2,201
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 431
Gender
Gender distribution for Lana
Out of the 56,681 babies given the name Lana since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Lana as a male name
- Ranked #4,744 in 1969
- 5 male births in 1969
- Peak: 1943 (5 births)
Lana as a female name
- Ranked #374 in 2024
- 829 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1948 (1,465 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lana appears almost entirely female. Of the 48,612 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Lana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lana from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 10,209 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Lana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lana 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 Lana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Lana, while Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,058 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lana
The name Lana is a feminine given name of Spanish and Russian origins. It is derived from the Latin word "lana" meaning "wool" or "woolen garment". In Spanish, the name may have originated as a nickname for a woman who worked with wool or wore woolen clothing.
In Russian, the name Lana is a diminutive form of the Slavic name Svetlana, which means "light" or "luminous". It became popular in Russia and other Slavic countries in the 20th century.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Lana is in the 12th century, when it was recorded as a medieval Spanish name. It was also used as a feminine form of the Italian name Lano, which was a variant of the name Lanfranco, meaning "free landowner".
Lana is mentioned in the epic poem "The Lusiads" by the Portuguese writer Luís de Camões, written in the 16th century. The poem tells the story of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's journey to India.
Some notable historical figures with the name Lana include Lana Turner (1921-1995), an American actress who was known for her roles in films such as "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Imitation of Life". Lana Del Rey (born 1986) is an American singer and songwriter, known for her album "Born to Die" and her vintage, cinematic style.
Lana Wachowski (born 1965) is an American film director, writer, and producer, best known for co-creating the "Matrix" trilogy with her sister Lilly Wachowski. Lana Parrilla (born 1977) is an American actress, known for her role as the Evil Queen/Regina Mills in the TV series "Once Upon a Time".
Lana Clarkson (1962-2003) was an American actress and model who was tragically killed by record producer Phil Spector in 2003.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lana
People
Lana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 45,401 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lana 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 7,549 US residents.
Is Lana a common name?
We classify Lana as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 56,681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lana most popular?
The single biggest year for Lana was 1948, when 1,470 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lana is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 48,603 people with the name Lana, or 16.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #923 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 Lana 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 Lana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lana appears almost entirely female. Of the 48,612 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Lana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lana is White at 77.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.7%). 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 Lana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.8% (37,791 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 Lana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lana 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 Lana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lana 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 Lana 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 Americans are named Lana?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.