Shana
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Modern coinage, apparently an altered and more obviously feminine form of pSian
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Shana is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country. In Türkiye it is the 27th most common surname.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 297as Sani(inferred from the name graph)
- TRTürkiye≈1 in 411as Şen
- ARArgentina1 in 2.7Kas Sena
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Shana itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- #345 (measured from records)
- 12 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 459 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 297 (inferred from the name graph)
≈720,000 named Sani, est.
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Nigeria, est., as Sani
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
20 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Sana in PK Pakistan, MA Morocco, Sani in NG Nigeria, ID Indonesia, Soni in IN India and Şen in TR Türkiye.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Modern coinage, apparently an altered and more obviously feminine form of pSian.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Shana is read(measured from records)
Shana is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English74%
Anglais, forme moderne; parfois rattachée à Shannon ou à Shoshana.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
- French7.3%
Forme irlandaise de Jeanne; origine hébraïque, « Dieu a fait grâce ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Shana counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈720,000 est. | ≈1 in 297 | listed | Sani | 63 |
| IN India | #78 | 218,303as Sen | 1 in 6.1K | 218K | Soni | 293 |
| TR Türkiye | #27 | ≈200,000 est. | ≈1 in 411 | #94 | Şen | 125 |
| PK Pakistan | #597 | ≈33,000 est. | ≈1 in 7K | listed | Sana | 133 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈32,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.2K | listed | Sani | 151 |
| AR Argentina | — | 16,831as Sena | 1 in 2.7K | 17K | Jona | 39 |
| MA Morocco | — | ≈7,300 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | listed | Sana | 96 |
| FI Finland | — | 3,007as Suni | 1 in 1.9K | 26K | Sanna | 10 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Shana is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Modern coinage, apparently an altered and more obviously feminine form of pSian.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Shana Alexanderb. 1925USAmerican journalist (1925–2005)
- Shana Abéb. 1950USU.S. American novelist
- Shana Daleb. 1964USNASA deputy administrator
- Shana Halliganb. 1973USAmerican singer-songwriter
- Shana Festeb. 1975USAmerican film director and screenwriter
- Shana Hiattb. 1975USAmerican model and television host
- Shana Coxb. 1985USAmerican sprinter who competes internationally for Great Britain since 2011
- Shanaze Readeb. 1988GBnot in their usual nameEnglish bicycle motocross rider and track cyclist
- Shana Goldberg-MeehanUSTelevision producer, television writer
- Shana Evaactress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 80 sources across 46 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 96 | #29,250 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 28 | #14,831 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 20 | #25,881 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 12 | — |
| IN India | naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) | 2015 | 5 | — |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present) | 2024 | 2 | #4,721 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — births 1922–2015 (Kaggle mirror) | 2012 | 2 | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Shana mean, and where does it come from?
- Modern coinage, apparently an altered and more obviously feminine form of pSian. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- Is Shana a male or female name?
- Shana is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- What are other forms of the name Shana?
- In the etymology graph, Shannon, Shanna and Shanon are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Shana have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 721 thousand people named Sani in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Shana?
- In India, the national register counted 218,303 people named Sen, about 1 in 6.1 thousand residents.
- How common is Shana compared with other names?
- In Türkiye, Shana is the 27th most common surname of 619,652 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Shana?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/shanaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Shana” — the 27th most common surname in Türkiye. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.