Ivana
A feminine name of Slavic origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 7,617 living Americans carry the first name Ivana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ivana today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ivana births was 2010 (266 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ivana. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ivana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.6K
~ 1 in 44,999 Americans
Peak year
2010
266 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,088
Tracked since 1943
Census
Ivana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,813 people with the first name Ivana, which placed it at #2,668 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
#2,668
National first-name rank
People counted
8.8K
8,813 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ivana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivana is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (38.5%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Ivana 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 Ivana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.8% · 3,775
- White38.5% · 3,389
- Black or African American9.8% · 861
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 563
- Two or more races2.0% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 53
Popularity
Ivana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ivana from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,020 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ivana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ivana 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 Ivana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ivanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Ivana, while Utah, Alabama, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 207 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ivana
The name Ivana is a feminine form of the Slavic name Ivan, which is derived from the Greek name Ioannes, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly Russian, Serbian, Croatian, and Czech.
Ivana is believed to have been in use since the Middle Ages, and it was a popular name among the Slavic people of Eastern and Central Europe. The earliest recorded instance of the name dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in historical records from Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic.
In ancient times, the name Ivana was not commonly found in religious scriptures or historical texts. However, it was a popular name among the nobility and the ruling classes of various Slavic kingdoms and empires.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Ivana was Ivana of Bulgaria, who lived in the 13th century and was the wife of Tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. Another notable figure was Ivana Semiz, a Serbian noblewoman who lived in the 14th century and was a member of the powerful Branković dynasty.
In the 15th century, Ivana Žamanjić was a Croatian noblewoman who played a significant role in the defense of her family's lands against the Ottoman Empire. In the 16th century, Ivana Dragišić was a Croatian poet and humanist who wrote in Latin and is considered one of the most important figures of the Croatian Renaissance.
During the 19th century, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, born in 1874 and died in 1938, was a Croatian writer and novelist who is best known for her collection of children's stories, which drew inspiration from Slavic folklore and mythology.
Throughout history, the name Ivana has been borne by numerous women from various backgrounds, including royalty, nobility, artists, writers, and scholars. While its popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries, it remains a widely used name in many Slavic cultures and has gained recognition worldwide.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ivana
People
Ivana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ivana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ivana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ivana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ivana 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 44,999 US residents.
Is Ivana a common name?
We classify Ivana as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,824 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ivana most popular?
The single biggest year for Ivana was 2010, when 266 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ivana 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 Ivana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,813 people with the name Ivana, or 2.92 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,668 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 Ivana 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 Ivana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ivana appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,816 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Ivana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ivana is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (38.5%) and Black (9.8%). 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 Ivana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Ivana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.8% (3,775 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 Ivana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ivana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ivana 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 Ivana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ivana 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 Ivana 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 are named Ivana?
Find out how many Americans are named Ivana on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.