WaNa
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
WaNa is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Ethiopia than in any other country. In English, recorded as Initialism of West Asia and North Africa.
- ZMZambia≈1 in 12K(inferred from the name graph)
- ETEthiopia≈1 in 26K
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 106K
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 WaNa 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.
- Ethiopia (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 42 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 12K (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,100 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Zambia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled ዋና in ET Ethiopia.
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)
Initialism of West Asia and North Africa.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
How WaNa is read(measured from records)
WaNa is one spelling over 4 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.
- English42%
Initialism of West Asia and North Africa.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Portuguese13%
No dictionary in our sources glosses WaNa in Portuguese.
- Indonesian7.9%
synonym of hutan (“forest”)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Hindi5.7%
No dictionary in our sources glosses WaNa in Hindi.
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
WaNa 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ET Ethiopia | ≈4,100 est. | ≈1 in 26K | — | ዋና | 7 |
| ZM Zambia | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | WaNa | 5 |
| US United States | 589as Wanna | 1 in 565K | 564 | WaNa | 29 |
| BR Brazil | 426 | 1 in 497K | 426 | WaNa | 42 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 106K | — | WaNa | 7 |
| SE Sweden | 121as Wanna | 1 in 84K | 121 | — | 3 |
| IS Iceland | 2as Wanna | 1 in 175K | 2 | — | — |
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: IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). 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)
WaNa is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In pjt, digging stick for gathering food (traditionally used by women; along with a piti it symbolises women)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Japanese, Rōmaji transcription of わな
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In hla, shoot with bow and arrow
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In ang, a want, lack, absence
as a wordkaikki.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.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 20 sources across 9 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 426 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 414 | #14,932 |
| BR Brazil | Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA) | — | 414 | #8,486 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 399 | #16,480 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2020 | 395 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2010 | 325 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 256 | #31,394 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2000 | 234 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 1990 | 118 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 1990 | 116 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2000 | 91 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2010 | 70 | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 WaNa mean, and where does it come from?
- Initialism of West Asia and North Africa. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- Is WaNa a male or female name?
- WaNa 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.
- In which country does WaNa have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.1 thousand people named WaNa in Ethiopia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ዋና.
- How common is the name WaNa?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 426 people named WaNa in 2022, about 1 in 497 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about WaNa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/wanaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “WaNa”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.