Sanna
A feminine Scandinavian name meaning "truth" or "true".
Name Census estimates that about 627 living Americans carry the first name Sanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sanna today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sanna births was 2008 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sanna. 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 Sanna with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
627
~ 1 in 546,658 Americans
Peak year
2008
21 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,839
Tracked since 1894
Census
Sanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,085 people with the first name Sanna, which placed it at #11,692 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
#11,692
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,085 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sanna is White at 59.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.6%) and Black (13.3%). 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 Sanna 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 Sanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.5% · 646
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.6% · 224
- Black or African American13.3% · 144
- Two or more races3.8% · 41
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Sanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sanna from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 136 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Sanna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sanna 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 Sanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sannas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sanna
The name Sanna is believed to have originated in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language from the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "sanna," which means "pleasing," "lovely," or "attractive." This name has been in use since ancient times in various parts of South Asia.
In Indian mythology, Sanna is mentioned as the name of a minor goddess or celestial nymph. She is described as a beautiful and charming attendant of the Hindu god Indra, the king of the devas (gods) and the ruler of the heavens. The name Sanna is also associated with the Hindu goddess Parvati, who is considered the embodiment of beauty, love, and devotion.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sanna can be found in the ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata. In this epic, Sanna is mentioned as the name of a female character who was known for her beauty and grace.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Sanna. One such person was Sanna the Wise, a renowned scholar and philosopher who lived in the 6th century CE in the region of Khorezm, which is now part of modern-day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. She was renowned for her knowledge of various subjects, including philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics.
Another prominent figure named Sanna was Sanna bint Bahram al-Suryani, a renowned Arab poet who lived in the 7th century CE. She was highly regarded for her eloquence and poetic skills, and her works were widely celebrated during her lifetime.
In the 12th century, there was a Persian princess named Sanna Khatun, who was the daughter of Sultan Sanjar, the ruler of the Seljuk Empire. She was known for her beauty, intelligence, and patronage of the arts and literature.
During the medieval period, Sanna was also the name of a renowned female artist and calligrapher from the Ottoman Empire. She was renowned for her intricate and beautiful calligraphic works, which adorned many buildings and manuscripts of the time.
In more recent history, Sanna was the name of Sanna Marin, a Finnish politician who became the Prime Minister of Finland in 2019 at the age of 34, making her the youngest-ever prime minister of the country.
People
Sanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sanna as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 627 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sanna 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 546,658 US residents.
Is Sanna a common name?
We classify Sanna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 723 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Sanna was 2008, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sanna is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,085 people with the name Sanna, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,692 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 Sanna 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 Sanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sanna leans strongly female. 1,053 people counted with this name were female (97.1%), compared with 32 male bearers (2.9%). 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 Sanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sanna is White at 59.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.6%) and Black (13.3%). 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 Sanna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.5% (646 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 Sanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sanna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sanna 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 Sanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sanna 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 Sanna 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 Sanna?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Sanna at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.