Shana
Shana was given to 25 girls in 2025, #5,212 among girls’ names; 29,748 Americans have been recorded with it since 1937 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 28,300 Americans named Shana and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 38 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shana by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shana mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shana is “a female given name from Welsh.”
Anglicized variant of the Welsh name Siân (pet form Siana) - or a version of the French name Jeanne.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shana?
#5,212 among girls’ names, 2025
Shana fell from #4,058 in 2015 to #5,212 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 20.7 to 15.6 per million.
1,569 babies in 1984, the peak
Shana peaked in 1984, when 1,569 babies were given it (1,563 girls, #174 among girls’ names). The 25 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25 | #5,212 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 34 | #4,280 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 25 | #5,230 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 23 | #5,608 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,899 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 29 | #4,630 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 30 | #4,640 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 31 | #4,544 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 33 | #4,364 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 20 | #6,370 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (87)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 37 | #4,058 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 32 | #4,536 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 31 | #4,629 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 55 | #3,089 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 49 | #3,344 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 49 | #3,352 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 61 | #2,883 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 95 | #2,135 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 74 | #2,536 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 111 | #1,843 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 115 | #1,728 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 114 | #1,711 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 144 | #1,387 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 137 | #1,407 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 145 | #1,329 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 192 | #1,077 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 212 | #976 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 254 | #840 | 0.14 |
| 1997 | 277 | #763 | 0.16 |
| 1996 | 342 | #653 | 0.20 |
| 1995 | 367 | #610 | 0.21 |
| 1994 | 395 | #580 | 0.22 |
| 1993 | 521 | #486 | 0.29 |
| 1992 | 596 | #423 | 0.32 |
| 1991 | 698 | #370 | 0.37 |
| 1990 | 762 | #350 | 0.40 |
| 1989 | 769 | #327 | 0.42 |
| 1988 | 945 | #267 | 0.53 |
| 1987 | 1,018 | #252 | 0.59 |
| 1986 | 1,094 | #236 | 0.64 |
| 1985 | 1,423 | #189 | 0.83 |
| 1984 | 1,563 | #174 | 0.93 |
| 1983 | 718 | #323 | 0.43 |
| 1982 | 695 | #342 | 0.41 |
| 1981 | 819 | #295 | 0.49 |
| 1980 | 913 | #273 | 0.55 |
| 1979 | 1,198 | #218 | 0.75 |
| 1978 | 1,345 | #192 | 0.88 |
| 1977 | 1,501 | #183 | 1.0 |
| 1976 | 1,322 | #189 | 0.90 |
| 1975 | 1,019 | #239 | 0.70 |
| 1974 | 675 | #328 | 0.46 |
| 1973 | 682 | #327 | 0.47 |
| 1972 | 764 | #317 | 0.50 |
| 1971 | 732 | #345 | 0.44 |
| 1970 | 992 | #293 | 0.57 |
| 1969 | 877 | #305 | 0.52 |
| 1968 | 439 | #460 | 0.27 |
| 1967 | 379 | #489 | 0.23 |
| 1966 | 372 | #485 | 0.22 |
| 1965 | 265 | #587 | 0.15 |
| 1964 | 174 | #785 | 0.09 |
| 1963 | 132 | #919 | 0.07 |
| 1962 | 99 | #1,098 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 92 | #1,153 | 0.05 |
| 1960 | 76 | #1,262 | 0.04 |
| 1959 | 47 | #1,591 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 56 | #1,431 | 0.03 |
| 1957 | 38 | #1,775 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 21 | #2,518 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 35 | #1,796 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 44 | #1,531 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 26 | #2,059 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 19 | #2,489 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 14 | #2,910 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 13 | #3,029 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 17 | #2,499 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 14 | #2,811 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 14 | #2,875 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,884 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 5 | #5,140 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 9 | #3,451 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 10 | #3,169 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,897 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,468 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 8 | #3,379 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,830 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shana a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shana has been given almost only to girls: 113 boys in 87 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shana: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shana, and how old are they?
28,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 29,748 Americans ever recorded as Shana. The median Shana alive today is 45 years old; half are between 38 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 26,205 people named Shana (26,129 women and girls, 76 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 28,543 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 23 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 777 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 12,700 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 12,400 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,060 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 360 |
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 Shana born?
The states with the most babies named Shana are California, New York and Texas, with 25% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 2,666 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 2,158 | #2,036 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 1,938 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 1,415 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Florida | 1,243 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 1,231 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 1,189 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 1,027 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 891 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 889 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Shana is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shana is most over-represented in South Carolina: since 1937 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
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 Shana 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 141,420 babies since 1880, Shana is the most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 25 of their 295 babies (8.5%), 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 Shana
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 Shana and names like it
- Compare Shana and ShannaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sShana peaked in 1984.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shana since 1910.
- Welsh namesWiktionary’s origin for Shana: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1984The year the most babies were named Shana.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Shana alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with SMost given first.