Ganna
A feminine Ukrainian name derived from the plant name sugarcane.
Name Census estimates that about 34 living Americans carry the first name Ganna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ganna today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ganna births was 1997 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ganna. 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 Ganna. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
34
~ 1 in 10,081,010 Americans
Peak year
1997
7 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2023 SSA rank
#15,974
Tracked since 1997
Census
Ganna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 986 people with the first name Ganna, which placed it at #12,575 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
#12,575
National first-name rank
People counted
986
986 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ganna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ganna is White at 94.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.7%) and Black (2.0%). 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 Ganna 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 Ganna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.2% · 929
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 27
- Black or African American2.0% · 20
- Two or more races0.5% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Ganna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ganna from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 17 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ganna 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 Ganna 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 Ganna
The given name Ganna is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit language, which is one of the oldest Indo-Aryan languages spoken primarily in South Asia. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "gana," which means "group" or "multitude." The name gained popularity during the ancient Vedic period in India, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 600 BCE.
Ganna is a name that has been mentioned in various Hindu scriptures and texts, including the Vedas and Puranas. In the Rigveda, one of the oldest Hindu scriptures, the name Ganna is associated with a group of deities known as the Ganas, who were attendants of Lord Shiva. The name also appears in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics, where it is mentioned as the name of a warrior.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ganna can be found in the Gupta Empire, which ruled over a large part of the Indian subcontinent from around 320 CE to 550 CE. During this period, there was a famous ruler named Ganna, who was the king of the Kadamba dynasty, a prominent ruling family in present-day Karnataka, India.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ganna. One of them was Ganna Walska, a Polish-American opera singer, actress, and socialite who lived from 1887 to 1984. She is best known for creating the Lotusland botanical garden in Montecito, California.
Another famous Ganna was Ganna Sapar, a Ukrainian writer and playwright who lived from 1894 to 1931. She was a prominent figure in the Ukrainian literary scene during the early 20th century and is remembered for her works that explored social and political issues.
In the field of sports, there was Ganna Rizatdinova, a Ukrainian gymnast who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Another notable figure was Ganna Prokhorenko, a Soviet chess player who lived from 1948 to 2012. She was a Woman Grandmaster and won multiple national and international chess tournaments during her career.
Lastly, Ganna Borysova was a Ukrainian artist and painter who lived from 1943 to 2018. She was known for her vibrant and expressive paintings that often depicted scenes from everyday life in Ukraine.
People
Ganna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ganna 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
Ganna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ganna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ganna 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 10,081,010 US residents.
Is Ganna a common name?
We classify Ganna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.5% 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 Ganna most popular?
The single biggest year for Ganna was 1997, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ganna is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ganna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 986 people with the name Ganna, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,575 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 Ganna 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 Ganna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ganna appears almost entirely female. Of the 988 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Ganna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ganna is White at 94.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.7%) and Black (2.0%). 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 Ganna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ganna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.2% (929 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 Ganna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ganna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ganna 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 Ganna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ganna 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 Ganna 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 Ganna?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Ganna, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.