Hannah

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Girl · Hebrew

Hannah

Say it: HAN-uh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Hebrew Ḥannah, 'grace, favour', from the root ḥ-n-n 'to be gracious'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Adopted by Puritans after the Reformation; its Greek form Anna was already common throughout Christian Europe.

Its wave through time

Most used in the 2000s

In the United States

05101518801900192019401960198020002020Peak 2000per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 444,864 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 2000, about 1 in 79 girls
  • 4,915 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
  2. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
  3. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  4. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  5. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

HebrewEarly ChristianEnglishAmericanGermanPolish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Hanna, Hana

FrenchAnne
SpanishAna
ItalianAnna
GermanHanna
PolishHanna
RussianAnna
HebrewHanna
HebrewChannah

Famous bearers

  • Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel
  • Hannah Arendt, political philosopher
  • Hannah More, English writer

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
  • Puritan church and town records of England and New England
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • Colonial records of the Americas
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.