Sanna

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 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◐

Sanna is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name55K records spelled Sanna2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Finland, Sweden

  Also written Sanná

• English given name54K records spelled Sanna19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Norway, United States, Netherlands

  Languages: English, Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål

  Also written Sannà, Saenna, Sänna, Sânńā, Sannã

• Hindi given name36K records spelled Sanna5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Finland, United States, Sweden

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Sannã, Sanná

• Italian given name11K records spelled Sanna2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Italy, United States, Finland

  Also written Sannà

65 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●

Sanna 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 Italian, forma arcaica de zanna; apelativo por dentadura peculiar ou caninos longos

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In German, ) Sanne: weibl. Vom., Kurzform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Scandinavian: short form of SUSANNA . It may be favoured by association with the Swedish and Norwegian adjective sann true.

  as a word

• In pi, past participle of sandati (“to flow”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In kl, down distal absolutive; that down a long distance, he/she/it down there.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 76 years between 1922–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Sanna Töringeb. 1952SESwedish author
• Sanna-Kaisa Palob. 1960FIFinnish actress
• Sanna Englundb. 1975DEGerman actress
• Laura Voutilainenb. 1975FInot in their usual nameFinnish pop singer
• Sanna Sténb. 1977FIFinnish rower
• Sanna Lundellb. 1978SESwedish television host
• Sanna Nielsenb. 1984SESwedish singer and television presenter
• Sanna Marinb. 1985FIPrime Minister of Finland from 2019 to 2023
• Sanna Nyassib. 1989GMGambian footballer
• Sanna Solberg-Isaksenb. 1990NONorwegian handball player

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 · 572 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sanna?

We estimate roughly 37 thousand people bear Sanna (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Sanna have the most bearers?

We estimate about 22 thousand people bear Sanna in Finland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled sanna.

Where is Sanna most common?

Sanna is densest in Finland, where the national register counts about 1 in 250 people carrying it.

How common is Sanna compared with other names?

In Finland, Sanna is the 154th most common given name of 51,554 given names recorded there.

Is Sanna a male or female name?

Sanna is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Sanna mean?

Recorded meaning: Sanna är ursprungligen en smekform till → Susanna som först efter 1970 har blivit vanlig som officiellt förnamn.