Sanaa

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sana in FR France, PK Pakistan, ES Spain and 2 more, Shauna in US United States, CA Canada, AU Australia and 1 more, Jona in PH Philippines, FI Finland, BR Brazil and 1 more and Сания in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Sanaa is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Norwegian Bokmål given name908 records spelled Sanaa29 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, United States, India

  Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Norwegian

  Also written Sana, Sãnã, Sanaå, Sãnãa, Saña

• a separate given name896 records spelled Sanaa4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Morocco

  Also written Sanaâ, Sanaà, Sanâa

• a separate name202 records spelled Sanaa4 spellings in the group

  Also written Sanaâ

• a separate name139 records spelled Sanaa5 spellings in the group

  Also written Sanaà, Sanaâ, Sanäa, Sana'A

• Czech surname84 records spelled Sanaa21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, United States, India, Slovakia

  Languages: Czech, Slovak

  Also written Sana, Šana, Šána, Saňa, Šaňa

34 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Sanaa is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Arabic, 4 (thanaa’) (4:5): praise, commendation, eulogy. Comp. qt, brilliance

  as a name·A Dictionary of Muslim Names

• In Arabic, 5): praise, commendation, eulogy. Comp. Sanaa’ cli, brilliance

  as a name·A Dictionary of Muslim Names

• In Swedish, Sanaa är ett arabiskt namn som betyder ’ära, storhet’.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In English, city, Saudi Arabia

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• Art.

  as a name·The African book of 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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 44 years between 1977–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Sanaa Gamilb. 1930EGEgyptian actress (1928–2002)
• Sanaa Shafeib. 1943EGEgyptian actor (1943–2020)
• Sanaa Lathanb. 1971USAmerican actress
• Sanaa Hamrib. 1974MAMoroccan American film and television director
• Sanaa Shaalanb. 1977JOJordanian writer and poet
• Sana Akroudb. 1980MAnot in their usual nameMoroccan actress
• Sanâa Alaouib. 1987MAMoroccan-French actress
• Sanaa Alsarghalib. 1987PSPalestinian legal and political researcher
• Sanaa Bhambrib. 1988INIndian tennis player
• Sanaa Seifb. 1993EGEgyptian political activist

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 206 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sanaa?

We estimate roughly 258 thousand people bear Sanaa (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Sanaa have the most bearers?

Sanaa is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled soni.

How common is Sanaa compared with other names?

In India, Sanaa is the 92nd most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

What does the name Sanaa mean?

Recorded meaning: brilliance, radiance, splendour, majestic.