Svetlana
A feminine Russian name meaning "the luminous one" or "light".
Name Census estimates that about 887 living Americans carry the first name Svetlana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Svetlana today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Svetlana births was 2007 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Svetlana. 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 Svetlana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
887
~ 1 in 386,420 Americans
Peak year
2007
51 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,751
Tracked since 1967
Census
Svetlana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,724 people with the first name Svetlana, which placed it at #1,787 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
#1,787
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
16,724 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Svetlana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Svetlana is White at 95.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Svetlana 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 Svetlana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.9% · 16,038
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 254
- Two or more races1.3% · 212
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 162
- Black or African American0.3% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 2
Popularity
Svetlana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Svetlana from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 292 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Svetlana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Svetlana 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 Svetlana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Svetlanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, Washington recorded the most babies named Svetlana, while Texas, Washington, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Svetlana
The name Svetlana has its origins in the Russian language and culture. It is a feminine form of the Slavic name Svyatoslav, which means "holy glory" or "sacred glory." The name can be traced back to the 10th century and is believed to have been derived from the old Slavic words "svyaty" (sacred) and "slava" (glory).
Svetlana was a popular name among the Russian aristocracy and nobility during the Middle Ages. It gained wider popularity after the 17th century, particularly among the Russian Orthodox Christian community. The name is associated with the concept of light and purity, which aligns with the religious and cultural values of the time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Svetlana can be found in the Russian epic poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign," written in the 12th century. In this work, Svetlana is mentioned as a character, though it is unclear whether it was a real person or a fictional representation.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Svetlana. One of the most famous was Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926-2011), the daughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She defected to the United States in 1967 and became a vocal critic of her father's regime.
Another prominent Svetlana was Svetlana Savitskaya (born 1948), a Soviet cosmonaut and the second woman to perform a spacewalk. She made history in 1984 when she spent almost 20 days in space aboard the Salyut 7 space station.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (born 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player who has won two Grand Slam singles titles and reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world.
Svetlana Alexievich (born 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist and non-fiction writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 for her "polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."
Svetlana Khorkina (born 1979) is a retired Russian gymnast who won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, including two Olympic gold medals in the all-around competition.
The name Svetlana has remained popular in Russia and other Slavic countries, and its meaning and historical significance continue to resonate with many families and communities.
People
Svetlana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Svetlana 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
Svetlana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Svetlana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 887 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Svetlana 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 386,420 US residents.
Is Svetlana a common name?
We classify Svetlana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 909 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Svetlana most popular?
The single biggest year for Svetlana was 2007, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Svetlana is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Svetlana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,724 people with the name Svetlana, or 5.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,787 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 Svetlana 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 Svetlana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Svetlana appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,716 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Svetlana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Svetlana is White at 95.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). 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 Svetlana most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Svetlana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.9% (16,038 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 Svetlana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Svetlana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Svetlana 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 Svetlana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Svetlana 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 Svetlana 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 Svetlana?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.