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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

HannahIn Hebrew: חנה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: חַנָּהRomanization: ḥaná

Hannah (Hebrew: חנה) is a girl's name of biblical origin. 46,781 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 856 girls and ranked #11. Its peak year was 1952, with 945 babies.

People in Israel
46,781
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
856
rank #11
Peak year
1952
945 babies
USA, 2025
3,973
rank #56

Writing and saying Hannah

In Hebrew letters the name is חנה, read right to left. Hannah is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "ḥaná" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a female given name, Hannah, Hanna, Hana, and Chana
  • Hannah (mother of the prophet Samuel in the Old Testament)
Related to חַנּוּן (ḥanún, “merciful, gracious, compassionate”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Hannah by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Hannah: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Hannah in English-speaking countries

Hannah in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20253,973#562000 (23,087)
United Kingdom2025546#991997 (6,290)
England and Wales2025439#1051996 (5,916)
Scotland202564#641994 (505)
Northern Ireland202543#421998 (233)
Ireland2025168#212007 (407)
British Columbia202370#271999 (232)
Alberta202583#242000 (249)
Quebec202527#2182021 (43)
New South Wales202599#732001 (434)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Hannah has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Hannah

How do you write Hannah in Hebrew?

Hannah is written חנה in Hebrew (with vowel points: חַנָּה). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "ḥaná".

How many people in Israel are named Hannah?

46,781 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name חנה: 46,748 women and 33 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Hannah a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 99.9% of the people named חנה are women.

What does the name Hannah mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a female given name, Hannah, Hanna, Hana, and Chana" Etymology: Related to חַנּוּן (ḥanún, “merciful, gracious, compassionate”).

Is Hannah used outside Israel?

The name Hannah appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 3,973 girls were given it in 2025 (#56), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 546 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.