Cana
Hebrew name meaning "reed" or "place of reeds".
Name Census estimates that about 641 living Americans carry the first name Cana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cana today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cana births was 1999 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cana. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
641
~ 1 in 534,718 Americans
Peak year
1999
34 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,458
Tracked since 1973
Census
Cana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 672 people with the first name Cana, which placed it at #16,680 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16,680
National first-name rank
People counted
672
672 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cana is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.6%) and Two or More Races (8.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cana described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.6% · 441
- Black or African American12.6% · 85
- Two or more races8.6% · 58
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 47
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
Popularity
Cana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cana from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 189 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Cana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cana by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Canas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Cana
The given name Cana has its origins in ancient Hebrew, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the Bible. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "kaneh," which means "reed" or "cane." It is believed to have been originally used as a place name, referring to a location in Galilee where Jesus performed his first public miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cana appears in the Gospel of John, where it is mentioned as the site of Jesus' first miracle. This event holds significant importance in Christian theology and has been widely depicted in art and literature throughout the centuries.
In terms of historical figures bearing the name Cana, records are scarce. However, there are a few notable individuals worth mentioning. Cana of Galilee, also known as Saint Cana, is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. She is believed to have been the bride at the wedding feast in Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle.
Another historical figure with the name Cana is Cana Palić, a Croatian poet and writer from the 17th century. Born in 1625 in Dubrovnik, she is considered one of the most significant female writers of the Croatian Baroque period.
In the realm of religious scholarship, Cana is also the name of a 9th-century Benedictine abbess and writer from the Carolingian Empire. She is known for her work "De Vita et Gestis Caroli Magni" (On the Life and Deeds of Charlemagne), which provides valuable insights into the life and reign of the famous Frankish ruler.
Moving forward in time, Cana Husson was a French painter born in 1889. She was a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendants and is known for her landscape and still-life paintings.
Finally, Cana Bilir-Meier is a contemporary Turkish-Swiss artist and sculptor born in 1968. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Europe and the United States, and she is renowned for her abstract sculptures and installations.
While the name Cana may have its roots in ancient Hebrew and Christian tradition, it has endured through the centuries and has been borne by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, reflecting its enduring appeal and versatility.
People
Cana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 641 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cana going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 534,718 US residents.
Is Cana a common name?
We classify Cana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 655 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cana most popular?
The single biggest year for Cana was 1999, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cana is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 672 people with the name Cana, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,680 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cana in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cana leans strongly female. 637 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 38 male bearers (5.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cana is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.6%) and Two or More Races (8.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.6% (441 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cana in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cana in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cana can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Cana?
Want to know how many Americans are named Cana? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.