girl's name
Lana
LA-na
- Origin Hawaiian
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 95,177
the United States
#406
2025 births
Lana is a girl's name with several competing origins — a Hawaiian word for calm, a Slavic short form of Svetlana, and a Hollywood invention of the 1930s. It ranks ninety-eighth in France and is well used across Britain.
- Lana is a name of Hawaiian origin.
- Peaked in 1948, when 1,470 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,317 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1885.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Lana over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 21 |
| 1890s | 63 |
| 1900s | 81 |
| 1910s | 142 |
| 1920s | 230 |
| 1930s | 251 |
| 1940s | 10,209 |
| 1950s | 8,932 |
| 1960s | 8,325 |
| 1970s | 5,235 |
| 1980s | 3,484 |
| 1990s | 2,083 |
| 2000s | 5,766 |
| 2010s | 7,921 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,706 |
What Lana means
Lana has no settled meaning. Hawaiian gives calm or floating; Slavic makes it a short form of Svetlana, meaning light; Irish and Gaelic sources give child or precious; and the Latin lana simply means wool.
Where Lana comes from
Lana is a name several traditions arrived at independently. In Hawaiian it means calm or afloat; in Russian and other Slavic languages it clips Svetlana, from svet, light; in Latin lana is wool, which gives the English lanolin. Its Anglophone popularity has a documented origin: the actress Julia Jean Turner was renamed Lana by a studio executive in 1937, and Lana Turner made the name fashionable in America from nothing. That a name with three ancient claimants owes its modern currency to a Hollywood renaming is unusual, and it is why reference sources disagree so freely about what it means.
Lana in use
Lana ranks ninety-eighth in France with about 530 births in 2025 and is unusually even across our markets, at 181 in Northern Ireland and 189 in Scotland. Our records carry it from 1885 and show a peak in 1948, a decade after Lana Turner's renaming, which supports the Hollywood account of its modern rise rather than any of the older etymologies.
How popular is Lana?
In 2025, Lana was given to 768 babies in the United States, ranking #406 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Lana is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Lana
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Lana also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Lana over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Lana in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Lana
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Lana — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Lana
What does the name Lana mean?
It depends on the tradition: calm in Hawaiian, light through the Slavic Svetlana, or wool in Latin.
Why do sources disagree about Lana?
Several unrelated languages arrived at the same short name, and its modern popularity comes from none of them.
Was Lana Turner born Lana?
No. She was Julia Jean Turner, renamed by a studio executive in 1937.
How popular is Lana?
Ninety-eighth in France, 181st in Northern Ireland and 189th in Scotland.
Is Lana a girl's or a boy's name?
Lana is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Lana?
Lana has 2 syllables.
Is Lana a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Lana currently ranks #98 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.