Meaning and history
Hannah comes from the Hebrew name חַנָּה (Ḥanna), meaning “favour” or “grace,” from the root חָנַן (ḥanan), “to be gracious.” In the Old Testament, Hannah is the wife of Elkanah, who suffers barrenness while his other wife, Peninnah, has children, but she later conceives Samuel after Eli blesses her. As an English name, Hannah was not commonly used until after the Protestant Reformation, unlike the forms Anne, Ann, and Anna, which were in use from the late Middle Ages. It became much more popular in the second half of the 20th century and rose close to the top of the name rankings in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
20062006: 14,556 births, rank #8
2007: 13,323 births, rank #9
2008: 9,577 births, rank #17
2009: 7,584 births, rank #23
2010: 6,999 births, rank #20
20112011: 6,584 births, rank #25
2012: 7,293 births, rank #22
2013: 7,307 births, rank #23
2014: 6,593 births, rank #28
2015: 6,434 births, rank #28
20162016: 6,038 births, rank #33
2017: 5,934 births, rank #32
2018: 5,680 births, rank #33
2019: 5,644 births, rank #32
2020: 4,972 births, rank #39
20212021: 4,590 births, rank #44
2022: 4,490 births, rank #47
2023: 4,127 births, rank #48
2024: 4,078 births, rank #52
20252025: 3,973 births, rank #56
Hannah has unusual staying power. It appears in the US records as early as 1880 and still ranks #56 for girls in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2000, with 23,087 births.