Vina
From Sanskrit, meaning a stringed musical instrument like a lute or vina.
Name Census estimates that about 1,427 living Americans carry the first name Vina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vina today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vina births was 1920 (111 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vina. 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 Vina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 240,192 Americans
Peak year
1920
111 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,089
Tracked since 1880
Census
Vina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,362 people with the first name Vina, which placed it at #6,703 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
#6,703
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,362 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
42.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vina is Asian/Pacific Islander at 42.6%. The next largest groups are White (33.0%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Vina 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 Vina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander42.6% · 1,007
- White33.0% · 779
- Black or African American11.8% · 278
- Hispanic or Latino6.8% · 161
- Two or more races3.3% · 77
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 60
Popularity
Vina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 850 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vina 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 Vina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Kentucky, Tennessee, California recorded the most babies named Vina, while South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 57 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vina
Vina is a name with roots that can be traced back to several cultures and languages. It is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit word "Vina," which means a stringed musical instrument similar to a lute or a zither. In ancient India, the vina was a highly revered instrument, often associated with divine and spiritual music.
The name Vina may also have connections to the Latin word "vinum," meaning wine. This could suggest ties to ancient Roman or Mediterranean cultures, where wine held significant cultural and religious importance. Some linguistic experts suggest that the name might be a variant of the Italian name "Vinia," derived from the Latin word "vinea," meaning a vineyard.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Vina can be found in the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, where it is used to refer to a celestial nymph or apsara. This association with divine feminine energy and grace may have contributed to the name's enduring popularity.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Vina. One of the earliest was Vina Sundor Devi (1648-1712), a famous Indian singer and musician who was a court performer during the Mughal Empire. Another renowned figure was Vina Massey (1938-1984), a British actress and dancer who appeared in several Bollywood films in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the realm of literature, Vina Delmar (1904-1990) was an American author and screenwriter, best known for her novel "Bad Girl," which was adapted into a film starring James Dunn and Sally Eilers in 1931. Vina Bovy (1900-1983) was a Belgian soprano who achieved international acclaim for her operatic performances in the early 20th century.
Moving to more recent times, Vina Pandurangi (1949-2021) was an Indian-American actress and director who made significant contributions to South Asian theater in the United States. Her work helped amplify the voices and experiences of the South Asian diaspora.
While the name Vina has its roots in ancient cultures and languages, it has continued to resonate across generations and geographies, often carrying connotations of artistic expression, femininity, and grace.
People
Vina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vina 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
Vina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,427 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vina 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 240,192 US residents.
Is Vina a common name?
We classify Vina as "Rare". It ranks above 92.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,260 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vina most popular?
The single biggest year for Vina was 1920, when 111 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vina is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,362 people with the name Vina, or 0.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,703 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 Vina 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 Vina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vina leans strongly female. 2,321 people counted with this name were female (98.0%), compared with 47 male bearers (2.0%). 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 Vina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vina is Asian/Pacific Islander at 42.6%. The next largest groups are White (33.0%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Vina most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Vina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.6% (1,007 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 Vina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vina 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 Vina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vina 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 Vina 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 Vina?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.