Kana
Kana was given to 12 girls in 2025, #8,607 among girls’ names; 890 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kana by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kana mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kana is “a female given name from Japanese.”
Borrowed from Japanese 香菜 (Kana).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kana?
#8,607 among girls’ names, 2025
Kana rose from #9,790 in 2015 to #8,607 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 6.2 to 7.5 per million.
27 babies in 2006, the peak
Kana peaked in 2006, when 27 girls were given it, #5,161 among girls’ names. The 12 births of 2025 are 44% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,607 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 19 | #6,275 | 11.7 |
| 2023 | 12 | #8,724 | 7.5 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,839 | 10.4 |
| 2021 | 15 | #7,444 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 25 | #5,087 | 15.5 |
| 2019 | 19 | #6,287 | 11.3 |
| 2018 | 14 | #7,947 | 8.2 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,638 | 8.7 |
| 2016 | 19 | #6,538 | 10.7 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #9,790 | 6.2 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,859 | 8.4 |
| 2013 | 18 | #6,872 | 10.3 |
| 2012 | 19 | #6,723 | 10.8 |
| 2011 | 12 | #9,426 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 15 | #8,073 | 8.4 |
| 2009 | 27 | #5,297 | 14.7 |
| 2008 | 20 | #6,682 | 10.6 |
| 2007 | 20 | #6,685 | 10.4 |
| 2006 | 27 | #5,161 | 14.2 |
| 2005 | 13 | #8,577 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,842 | 11.4 |
| 2003 | 19 | #6,174 | 10.4 |
| 2002 | 22 | #5,346 | 12.2 |
| 2001 | 25 | #4,758 | 13.9 |
| 2000 | 21 | #5,394 | 11.6 |
| 1999 | 25 | #4,508 | 14.1 |
| 1998 | 16 | #6,195 | 9.1 |
| 1997 | 22 | #4,722 | 12.6 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,804 | 12.0 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,271 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,842 | 9.0 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,531 | 9.4 |
| 1992 | 22 | #4,599 | 11.9 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,398 | 7.5 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,270 | 7.4 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,345 | 4.9 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,042 | 7.3 |
| 1987 | 17 | #4,757 | 9.8 |
| 1986 | 11 | #6,350 | 6.4 |
| 1985 | 14 | #5,180 | 8.1 |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,684 | 7.1 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,606 | 4.8 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,784 | 4.7 |
| 1981 | 14 | #5,078 | 8.4 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,612 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,912 | 3.1 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,718 | 7.2 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,902 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 8 | #6,898 | 5.5 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,166 | 6.2 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,970 | 6.1 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,336 | 6.9 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,218 | 5.3 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,797 | 3.6 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,467 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 7 | #5,890 | 4.3 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,232 | 2.6 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,596 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kana a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 890 Americans recorded as Kana, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 12 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kana: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kana, and how old are they?
An estimated 871 Americans named Kana and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 14 and 35. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,343 people named Kana (1,192 women and girls, 151 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 783 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 7,794 babies since 1880, Kana is the fourth most given (11% of them). In 2025 it was given to 12 of their 84 babies (14%), the fifth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kana
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kana and names like it
- Compare Kana and KaniyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKana peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kana since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Kana: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Kana.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kana alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.