Moana
Moana was given to 35 girls in 2025, #4,140 among girls’ names; 1,146 Americans have been recorded with it since 1941 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,110 Americans named Moana and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 7 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Moana by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Moana mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Moana is “a unisex given name from Polynesian.” Its etymology gives the sense “sea, ocean” (Moana).
Also “a unisex given name from Hawaiian.”
From Hawaiian Moana (“sea, ocean”), Māori moana, and other Polynesian languages.
/məʊˈɑːnə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Moana?
#4,140 among girls’ names, 2025
Moana rose from #6,901 in 2015 to #4,140 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 10.1 to 21.8 per million.
141 babies in 2017, the peak
Moana peaked in 2017, when 141 girls were given it, #1,559 among girls’ names. The 35 births of 2025 are 25% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #4,140 | 21.8 |
| 2024 | 50 | #3,209 | 30.9 |
| 2023 | 39 | #3,891 | 24.3 |
| 2022 | 45 | #3,515 | 27.4 |
| 2021 | 55 | #3,027 | 33.5 |
| 2020 | 48 | #3,265 | 29.7 |
| 2019 | 51 | #3,152 | 30.4 |
| 2018 | 82 | #2,252 | 48.2 |
| 2017 | 141 | #1,559 | 81.7 |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,956 | 32.2 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #6,901 | 10.1 |
| 2014 | 16 | #7,541 | 9.0 |
| 2013 | 19 | #6,640 | 10.8 |
| 2012 | 10 | #10,997 | 5.7 |
| 2011 | 12 | #9,546 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 9 | #11,952 | 5.1 |
| 2009 | 12 | #9,804 | 6.5 |
| 2008 | 19 | #6,989 | 10.0 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,384 | 5.2 |
| 2006 | 16 | #7,742 | 8.4 |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,642 | 4.3 |
| 2004 | 5 | #17,929 | 2.7 |
| 2003 | 9 | #11,020 | 4.9 |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,829 | 4.5 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,865 | 5.6 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,884 | 7.2 |
| 1999 | 8 | #11,053 | 4.5 |
| 1998 | 7 | #11,976 | 4.0 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,555 | 5.2 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,059 | 2.9 |
| 1995 | 5 | #14,976 | 2.8 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,869 | 3.4 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,887 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,933 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,450 | 2.6 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,454 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,981 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 9 | #7,782 | 5.2 |
| 1986 | 10 | #6,940 | 5.8 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,556 | 3.0 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,789 | 4.8 |
| 1982 | 11 | #6,208 | 6.5 |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,879 | 4.8 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,185 | 6.6 |
| 1979 | 11 | #6,024 | 6.9 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,228 | 4.6 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,118 | 8.5 |
| 1976 | 12 | #5,088 | 8.2 |
| 1975 | 12 | #5,050 | 8.2 |
| 1974 | 12 | #4,918 | 8.2 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,092 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,906 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 12 | #4,726 | 7.2 |
| 1970 | 12 | #4,676 | 6.9 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,859 | 4.2 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,833 | 3.7 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,674 | 3.6 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,156 | 4.0 |
| 1960 | 8 | #5,041 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | 7 | #5,394 | 3.5 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,246 | 3.5 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,742 | 2.4 |
| 1956 | 10 | #4,085 | 5.0 |
| 1955 | 7 | #5,049 | 3.6 |
| 1954 | 11 | #3,637 | 5.7 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,469 | 3.2 |
| 1942 | 8 | #3,638 | 5.9 |
| 1941 | 8 | #3,463 | 6.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Moana a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Moana has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 68 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Moana: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Moana, and how old are they?
1,110 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,146 Americans ever recorded as Moana. The median Moana alive today is 10 years old; half are between 7 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 1,016 people named Moana (979 women and girls, 37 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 858 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% above 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 68 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 118 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 97 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 163 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 652 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Moana born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5 | #3,390 | 1.0× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Moana with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 52,710 babies since 1880, Moana is the fourth most given (2.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 116 babies (30%), the second 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 Moana
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 Moana and names like it
- Compare Moana and MonaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sMoana peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Moana since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Moana.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Moana alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.