Savanna
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- From The Open Plain
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Savanna
Savanna is a modern American spelling variant of Savannah (see separate entry on Savannah for the etymology — possibly from the Spanish zavana, ultimately from the Taíno zabana meaning "open plain" or "grassland" — and the iconic American city of Savannah, Georgia anchor). The simpler -anna ending Savanna is essentially a 20th-21st century American variant.
The two spellings (Savanna and Savannah) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying place-name. The Savanna spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a sleeker form than the historical Savannah. Notable contemporary bearers include American basketball player Savanna Cardenas; the contemporary fictional Savanna of various contemporary novels; and various contemporary American social media influencers.
Savanna's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the in-built Savannah-American-place-name register, the popular three-syllable -anna ending family (Savanna, Adriana, Liliana, Briana), and the modern visual presence. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to American place-name girls' names. The name reads as both classical-American-Southern and contemporary American. Common nicknames Sav (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Savvy, Anna (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name on its own), and the rare Vanna each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Savannah (the more popular American spelling), Savanna, and Savana have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Sabana (Spanish original), and the original Taíno zabana.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Savanna
US Popularity History (2000–2023)
Annual US births named Savanna by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2006 with 1,502 girls named Savanna (girl rank #230 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2023, ranked #795 for girls (355 US births). That's 565 places below its 2006 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 Savanna 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 Savanna the strongest states are Nevada, Connecticut, Oklahoma.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | #439 | 26 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #459 | 53 |
| 3 | Oklahoma | #470 | 80 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #509 | 149 |
| 5 | Utah | #511 | 53 |
| 6 | Arkansas | #519 | 40 |
| 7 | Indiana | #532 | 98 |
| 8 | Mississippi | #548 | 30 |
| 9 | Iowa | #550 | 19 |
| 10 | Michigan | #559 | 155 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #824 | 102 |
| 2 | Texas | #810 | 281 |
| 3 | California | #778 | 398 |
| 4 | Maryland | #766 | 44 |
| 5 | Colorado | #759 | 36 |
| 6 | Kentucky | #748 | 23 |
| 7 | Louisiana | #744 | 43 |
| 8 | Virginia | #737 | 102 |
| 9 | Washington | #737 | 60 |
| 10 | Illinois | #735 | 149 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Savanna in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evelyn | Light | Female | Celtic |
Looking for names like Savanna?
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 Savanna to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Savanna 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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