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Sanaa

#2,116 in 2025Girls' name

Brilliance, radiance, splendour

Sanaa has been given to 6,146 babies in the U.S. since 1977. In 2025 it ranked #2,116 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2006, with 482 recorded.

Babies named Sanaa, 2025

1 in 37,200

Sanaa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sanaa: meaning, origin, and history

Brilliance, radiance, splendour

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sanaa means

Sanaa means “brilliance, radiance, splendour”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,146 girls were recorded with the name Sanaa between 1977 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 482 in 2006; its best national rank was #606 in 2006.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,501 in 2020 to #2,116 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,232 in 2015 to #2,116 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Sanaa?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 37,200
89 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 18,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,116
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
25,820 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sanaa sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5001%

Put another way: gather 25,820 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sanaa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sanaas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sanaa was born before 2009 — so the typical Sanaa is around 16 today.

Median birth year
2009
About 16 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
51.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
96.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
6,146
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 51.7% of all recorded uses (3,178).

Is Sanaa rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+264
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−615
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−884
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.44×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
18.5%
Peak was 2006 (482)
Years since peak
19
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#606
2006

Spellings of Sanaa

Sanaa is not the most common spelling — Sarah is, with 21.8% against Sanaa's 0.12%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Sanaa is used

Across 2016–2025, Sanaa was most concentrated in Maryland — about 1 in 4,167 girls, against 1 in 10,426 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 50,000).

224 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maryland1 in 4,167
  2. 2Georgia1 in 5,263
  3. 3North Carolina1 in 5,556
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in 5,556
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 7,143
  6. 6New York1 in 7,143
  7. 7Illinois1 in 7,692
  8. 8Virginia1 in 7,692

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Sanaa around the world

Where Sanaa ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1993–2003
    #667
    in 2003
  • France
    1974–2025
    #577
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1998–2024
    #2,710
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1986–1986
    #667
    in 1986

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Sanaa

People whose public names include Sanaa, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Sanaa by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,116
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 615
Best rank ever
#606
2006
Peak year
2006
482 that year
First recorded
1977
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,146
Count in 2025
89

Names similar to Sanaa

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SantaSanaiSandiSaniyaSanaSanyaSaniaSanviSantanaSaniyahSanayaSaniahSannaSantinaSandySanamSanjanaSanSantosSandieSanaeSansaSandeeSanika

Names with a curve like Sanaa

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Sanaa, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

CharlizeJaniahTaniyahJaylenJaylynYamiletYoselinJakaylaKamyaAniahMonserratMakena

Sibling names for Sanaa

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Sanaa

Top names of 2006, Sanaa's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2006Girls' names starting with S