Lana
Meaning
short form of Alana/Svetlana
The story
Lana is a short, luminous name with several origins feeding it. It serves as a short form of the Slavic Svetlana, whose root means light, and of the Celtic Alana, and it echoes the Hawaiian word for calm, still waters, so many hear light or serenity in it. Hollywood gave it star power twice over, first with the golden-age screen icon Lana Turner, and now with the singer Lana Del Rey, whose dreamy sound suits the name perfectly. Sleek and modern, it needs no nickname because it is already as smooth as a name can be. In the United States Lana reads as current as it has ever been. Soft, glamorous and international, Lana hands a child a name that carries light through Svetlana and calm through its Hawaiian echo, with a certain effortless, cinematic cool.
The formal names behind Lana
Lana is an established short form of this name.
Alana · Hawaiian origin · awakening, offering; precious
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lana peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
21,454 people · the #1,020 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 9,434 · median age 17
Among people named Lana living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,576 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Lana
People given the name Lana in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 2019. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Lana deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lana truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Lana fits with your family’s names and surname.
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