Hannah: Meaning of Baby Name Hannah

About the Name Hannah

Hannah descends from the Hebrew Channah, meaning "grace," "favor," or "graciousness" — from the verb chanan (to be gracious). The biblical Hannah is one of the most poignant figures of the Hebrew Bible: the barren wife of Elkanah who, in 1 Samuel, prays at the temple at Shiloh for a son, vowing to dedicate him to God. Her son Samuel becomes one of the great prophets of Israel, and her prayer of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1–10, the "Song of Hannah") is one of the foundational texts of biblical prayer poetry — directly paralleled centuries later in the Magnificat of Mary in the Gospel of Luke.

The name has been continuously used in Jewish tradition for over three thousand years. Christian English uptake came primarily through Puritan-era Old Testament naming. Notable bearers include 18th-century British poet Hannah More, German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906–1975, whose The Origins of Totalitarianism remains a foundational text of 20th-century political philosophy), and contemporary actress Hannah Simone.

Hannah's American boom held the US top-10 girls' rank from 1995 through 2008 — fourteen consecutive years among the most-popular American girls' names. The name has receded slightly since 2010 but remains in steady use. The appeal is its biblical weight combined with rhythmic compactness — two soft syllables, palindromic spelling (a distinctive visual quality), religiously anchored without feeling heavy, and easy compatibility across formal and casual registers. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Hanny, Han, and the rare Anna (the second half) occasionally appear. International forms include Anna (Greek/Latin, identical etymological origin via the Septuagint), Hanne (German/Scandinavian), Anaïs (Provençal/Catalan), and Channah (the original Hebrew, still common in Israel).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Hannah

1,531

Hebrew baby names in our dictionary

836

Hebrew female names

192

6-letter H-names in our dictionary

259

H-female names total

1880–2025

years of US SSA records (41 total)

426,863

total US births named Hannah (all years)

US Popularity History (1880–2025)

↘️ Falling: Hannah dropped 17 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#39 in 2020 → #56 in 2025).

Annual US births named Hannah by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 23,087 girls named Hannah (girl rank #2 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #56 for girls (3,973 US births). That's 54 places below its 2000 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.

Where in the US Is Hannah 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 Hannah the strongest states are Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Virginia	#29	1,465
2	Massachusetts	#29	1,241
3	Pennsylvania	#30	2,067
4	New Jersey	#31	1,556
5	New York	#32	3,153
6	New Hampshire	#33	236
7	Maryland	#34	890
8	Connecticut	#35	575
9	Alaska	#35	145
10	Minnesota	#39	908

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Louisiana	#94	412
2	West Virginia	#94	167
3	Mississippi	#86	282
4	New Mexico	#84	156
5	Nevada	#79	269
6	Arkansas	#76	325
7	Maine	#73	145
8	Hawaii	#71	87
9	Alabama	#64	567
10	Nebraska	#62	270

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Hannah in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Ann	Priceless	Male	Irish
Anna	Arthur's Sister	Female	Arthurian
Annie	Prayer	Female	Hebrew
Hanna	Arabic Form Of John (Gracious God)	Male	Arabic
Nanny	Grace	Female	Hebrew

Famous People Named Hannah

1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Hannah.

Hannah Whelan was the famous British gymnast, Hannah Whelan known for her performances in the British Championships and her humble nature.

Browse more famous Hannahs and similar first names →

Looking for names like Hannah?

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.

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Compare Hannah to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Hannah against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Hannah vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Hannah vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Hannah vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Hannah vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Hannah vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Hannah vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Hannah vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Hannah vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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