Sienna
Meaning
the English word for an orange-red color, ultimately from the city of Siena and its clay
The story
Sienna is a city turned into a colour turned into a name. The Tuscan city of Siena gave its name to the earth pigment sienna, the warm red-brown of raw and burnt sienna in every paintbox, and the name carries that colour with it. It was almost unheard of in America before the 1990s, entered the top 1000 in 1995, and then climbed fast, 2,151 in the 1990s to 10,690 in the 2000s, a jump helped along by the British actress Sienna Miller's rise early in that decade. It reached 14,141 in the 2010s and about 12,500 so far this decade. It sits easily beside Siena, Savannah and Sierra, place and colour names with a soft double vowel, and it is usually worn full, rarely shortened. Warm, lived-in, and already a colour on the wall.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Sienna peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
58 people · the #60,128 first name in Brazil · median age 2
The census also counted 35 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Sienna
Most people given the name Sienna in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Sienna deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Sienna 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 Sienna fits with your family’s names and surname.
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