Shaana
An Indian feminine name meaning "charming, brilliant, or splendid".
Name Census estimates that about 55 living Americans carry the first name Shaana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shaana today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaana births was 1984 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaana. 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 Shaana with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shaana. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
55
~ 1 in 6,231,897 Americans
Peak year
1984
11 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1995 SSA rank
#15,306
Tracked since 1972
Census
Shaana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 112 people with the first name Shaana, which placed it at #51,666 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
#51,666
National first-name rank
People counted
112
112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shaana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaana is White at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Black (39.3%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Shaana 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 Shaana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.3% · 44
- Black or African American39.3% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.0% · 9
- Two or more races4.5% · 5
Popularity
Shaana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaana from the 1970s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 30 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Shaana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shaana 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 Shaana 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 Shaana
The name Shaana is believed to have its origins in the Sanskrit language of ancient India. Sanskrit is one of the oldest known Indo-Aryan languages, with a documented history dating back over 3,500 years. The name Shaana is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit word "shana," which means "slowly" or "gradually."
In Hindu mythology, there are references to a minor deity named Shana, who was associated with the planet Saturn and was believed to move slowly across the night sky. This could be one possible source of the name's etymology, though the connection is not definitively established.
The earliest recorded use of the name Shaana dates back to the 7th century CE, when it appears in a few ancient Sanskrit texts and inscriptions. These early mentions suggest that the name was in use among certain Hindu communities in South Asia during that time period.
One of the earliest notable individuals known to have borne the name Shaana was a Sanskrit scholar and grammarian who lived in the 9th century CE. His full name was Shaana Bhatta, and he is credited with writing several influential treatises on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics.
In the 12th century, there was a princess named Shaana who was a member of the Chalukya dynasty that ruled parts of present-day Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in India. She was known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
Another historical figure with the name Shaana was a 16th-century poet and mystic from the Deccan region of India. Her full name was Shaana Bai, and she was renowned for her devotional poetry and spiritual teachings.
In the 18th century, there was a celebrated Indian dancer and courtesan named Shaana Bai who lived in the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. She was renowned for her beauty and talent in the classical dance form of Kathak.
A more recent example is Shaana Khastgir, an Indian actress and dancer who was born in 1925 and gained fame for her performances in several Bollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s.
People
Shaana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaana as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shaana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 55 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaana 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 6,231,897 US residents.
Is Shaana a common name?
We classify Shaana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 55.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 58 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaana most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaana was 1984, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaana is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shaana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 112 people with the name Shaana, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,666 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 Shaana 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 Shaana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaana leans strongly female. 112 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 3 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Shaana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaana is White at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Black (39.3%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Shaana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shaana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.3% (44 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 Shaana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shaana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shaana 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 Shaana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shaana 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 Shaana 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 called Shaana?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.