Leana
A feminine name derived from the French word "liane", meaning vine or flower.
Name Census estimates that about 3,875 living Americans carry the first name Leana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leana today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leana births was 2010 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leana. 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 Leana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 88,453 Americans
Peak year
2010
100 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,119
Tracked since 1880
Census
Leana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,801 people with the first name Leana, which placed it at #4,772 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
#4,772
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,801 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leana is White at 44.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Leana 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 Leana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.8% · 1,702
- Hispanic or Latino27.0% · 1,026
- Black or African American14.7% · 559
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 272
- Two or more races5.4% · 204
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 38
Popularity
Leana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leana from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 806 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Leana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leana 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 Leana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Leana, while Ohio, Connecticut, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 103 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leana
The name Leana has its roots in the Greek language and culture, tracing back to ancient times. It is a feminine form derived from the Greek name Leandros, which means "lion man" or "brave as a lion." The name was quite popular in ancient Greece, particularly among the aristocratic classes who valued bravery and strength.
One of the earliest references to the name Leana can be found in the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. Leander was a young man from Abydos who fell in love with Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite from Sestos. Every night, Leander would swim across the Hellespont (now known as the Dardanelles Strait) to meet his beloved. Tragically, he drowned during one of these nightly swims, and Hero took her own life out of grief.
The name Leana gained further prominence during the Byzantine era, which spanned from the 4th to the 15th century AD. Several notable figures bore this name, including Leana of Constantinople (c. 900 AD), a noblewoman known for her patronage of the arts and her charitable works.
In the medieval period, the name Leana spread across Europe, particularly in regions influenced by Greek culture and the Eastern Roman Empire. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in Western Europe can be found in the chronicles of the Frankish Kingdom, where a woman named Leana (c. 650 AD) was mentioned as a courtier in the entourage of King Dagobert I.
During the Renaissance, the name Leana experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly in Italy. Leana Baglioni (c. 1480-1557), an Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts, was a prominent figure of this era. She is remembered for her patronage of the painter Raphael and her involvement in the cultural life of Perugia.
In the 17th century, the name Leana found its way to the New World, carried by Greek immigrants and settlers. One notable bearer of the name was Leana Tsakalou (c. 1650-1720), a Greek-American pioneer who settled in what is now Tarpon Springs, Florida, and played a crucial role in the establishment of the Greek community in the area.
Throughout history, several other notable figures have borne the name Leana, including Leana Durr (1873-1937), an Austrian actress and singer, and Leana Lokko (born 1964), a Ghanaian-Scottish architect and academic.
People
Leana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,875 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leana 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 88,453 US residents.
Is Leana a common name?
We classify Leana as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,894 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leana most popular?
The single biggest year for Leana was 2010, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leana is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,801 people with the name Leana, or 1.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,772 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 Leana 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 Leana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leana appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,801 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 Leana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leana is White at 44.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.0%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Leana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.8% (1,702 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 Leana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leana 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 Leana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leana 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 Leana 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 common is the name Leana?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Leana at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.