Gana
A feminine Hindu name meaning "group of poets or singers".
Name Census estimates that about 33 living Americans carry the first name Gana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gana today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gana births was 1965 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gana. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Gana. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
33
~ 1 in 10,386,495 Americans
Peak year
1965
6 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2020 SSA rank
#15,903
Tracked since 1965
Census
Gana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 277 people with the first name Gana, which placed it at #31,090 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
#31,090
National first-name rank
People counted
277
277 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gana is White at 55.2%. The next largest groups are Black (17.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.0%). 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 Gana 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 Gana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.2% · 153
- Black or African American17.7% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.0% · 47
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 16
- Two or more races4.3% · 12
Popularity
Gana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gana from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 17 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gana 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 Gana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gana
The name Gana has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient language of the Indian subcontinent. The word "Gana" in Sanskrit means "group" or "multitude," and it is believed to have been used as a name to symbolize abundance or prosperity.
In Hinduism, Gana is also the name given to a group of semi-divine beings who are attendants of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and transformation. These beings are often depicted as dwarfish or child-like figures, and they are said to be devoted followers of Shiva.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gana can be found in the Rigveda, one of the oldest Hindu scriptures dating back to around 1500-1200 BCE. In the text, there are references to "Gana-devatas," which are deities associated with specific groups or clans.
In ancient Indian texts, such as the Puranas and the Mahabharata, there are several mentions of individuals with the name Gana. One notable example is Gana, a king who ruled over the Naga kingdom in the epic Mahabharata.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures with the name Gana. Gana Singh (1870-1920) was a prominent Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter who fought against British colonial rule. Gana Shakti (1872-1943) was a renowned Bengali writer and poet who made significant contributions to the literary world.
Gana Bayar (1915-1984) was a Mongolian politician who served as the first Prime Minister of the Mongolian People's Republic from 1952 to 1974. Gana Pati Mallik (1932-2022) was an Indian politician and former member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament.
Gana Murugan (born 1959) is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, representing the Tamil National Alliance party.
People
Gana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 33 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gana 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 10,386,495 US residents.
Is Gana a common name?
We classify Gana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gana most popular?
The single biggest year for Gana was 1965, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gana is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 277 people with the name Gana, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,090 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 Gana 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 Gana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gana leans strongly female. 230 people counted with this name were female (82.7%), compared with 48 male bearers (17.3%). 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 Gana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gana is White at 55.2%. The next largest groups are Black (17.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.0%). 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 Gana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.2% (153 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 Gana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gana 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 Gana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gana 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 Gana 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 have the name Gana?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Gana, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.