Lana
- Pronunciation
- [La-na]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Light
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Lana
Lana has multiple proposed origins. The most credible English line connects Lana to a short form of Alana/Alanna (see separate entries on Alana for the Old Breton/Old Irish etymology). A separate Slavic line connects Lana to a short form of Svetlana (the Russian name meaning "light"). A third Hawaiian line connects Lana to lana meaning "calm" or "to float." A fourth Latinate line connects Lana to the Latin lana meaning "wool."
The name's most influential modern American bearer is American actress Lana Turner (Julia Jean Turner, 1921–1995, the iconic American mid-20th-century film star whose career through The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 and Imitation of Life 1959 made her one of the foundational figures of the Hollywood Golden Age). Other notable bearers include American singer Lana Del Rey (Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, born 1985, the iconic American indie pop singer whose career through Born to Die 2012 and Norman F***ing Rockwell! 2019 made her one of the foundational early-21st-century American music figures).
Lana's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 2000 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Slavic/Hawaiian/Latin), the strong Lana Turner Hollywood Golden Age cultural anchor and Lana Del Rey contemporary indie-pop anchor, and the compact two-syllable structure. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-multi-cultural and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — the rare Lan and Lannie each occasionally appear; the longer formal Alana, Alanna, Svetlana, or Yalana are sometimes used as Lana's official-document version. International forms include Lana (essentially identical across Slavic/English/Italian), Svetlana (Russian elaborate), Alana (Irish), and the broader Alana/Svetlana family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lana
US Popularity History (2001–2025)
Annual US births named Lana by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2014 with 943 girls named Lana (girl rank #352 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #406 for girls (768 US births). That's 54 places below its 2014 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Lana Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Lana the strongest states are Hawaii, New Hampshire, District of Columbia.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #118 | 33 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | #180 | 20 |
| 3 | District of Columbia | #226 | 16 |
| 4 | California | #255 | 1,270 |
| 5 | Illinois | #276 | 379 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #321 | 168 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #324 | 244 |
| 8 | Washington | #346 | 191 |
| 9 | Florida | #346 | 491 |
| 10 | Connecticut | #348 | 81 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lana in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Lana
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Lana.
- Lana Turner — Movie Actress (1921)
Looking for names like Lana?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Lana to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lana against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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