Vannah
A feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Hannah, meaning "grace" or "favor".
Name Census estimates that about 154 living Americans carry the first name Vannah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vannah today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vannah births was 2017 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vannah. 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.
People living today
154
~ 1 in 2,225,678 Americans
Peak year
2017
17 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,461
Tracked since 1986
Census
Vannah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 203 people with the first name Vannah, which placed it at #38,074 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
#38,074
National first-name rank
People counted
203
203 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vannah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vannah is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Black (19.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.8%). 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 Vannah 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 Vannah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.3% · 100
- Black or African American19.2% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.8% · 26
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 19
- Two or more races5.9% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.4% · 7
Popularity
Vannah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vannah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 94 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Vannah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vannah 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 Vannah 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 Vannah
The name Vannah is a feminine given name derived from the Sanskrit word "vana," which means "forest" or "grove." This name has its origins in ancient Indian culture and is believed to have been in use since the early centuries AD.
The name Vannah is closely related to the Sanskrit word "vanaja," which means "born in the forest" or "forest child." This connection suggests that the name may have been initially associated with a connection to nature and the outdoors.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vannah can be found in the ancient Hindu text, the Mahabharata. In this epic, Vannah is mentioned as the name of a minor character, a young woman who lived in a forest hermitage.
Throughout history, the name Vannah has been borne by several notable individuals. One such person was Vannah Bhargava, an Indian poet and scholar who lived in the 8th century AD. Her collection of poems, titled "Vanamalika," explored themes of nature and spirituality.
Another prominent figure with the name Vannah was Vannah Devi, a Hindu mystic and spiritual teacher who lived in the 16th century. She is renowned for her teachings on the importance of self-realization and inner peace.
In the 19th century, Vannah Shastri was a respected Sanskrit scholar and translator who contributed significantly to the preservation and understanding of ancient Indian texts.
More recently, Vannah Kapoor was an Indian environmentalist and activist who worked tirelessly to protect the forests and wildlife of her country. She founded several conservation organizations and received numerous awards for her efforts, including the prestigious Padma Shri in 1992.
While the name Vannah may not be as common today as it once was, it continues to hold a special significance in Indian culture, representing a connection to nature and the natural world.
People
Vannah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vannah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vannah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vannah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 154 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vannah 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 2,225,678 US residents.
Is Vannah a common name?
We classify Vannah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 155 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vannah most popular?
The single biggest year for Vannah was 2017, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vannah is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vannah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 203 people with the name Vannah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,074 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 Vannah 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 Vannah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vannah leans strongly female. 200 people counted with this name were female (96.6%), compared with 7 male bearers (3.4%). 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 Vannah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vannah is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Black (19.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.8%). 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 Vannah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vannah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (100 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 Vannah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vannah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vannah 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 Vannah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vannah 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 Vannah 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 Vannah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.