Ariana: a history in 143 spellings in 58 Years

The Name Ariana is enjoying popularity like never before. This is probably at least partially because of the popularity of singer Ariana Grande, and also of the singer Rihanna. It jumps on the overall trend of names beginning and ending with A (e.g., Amelia, Ava, Aria, Aaliyah), as well as the current love of names ending in -ianna (Liliana, Eliana, Juliana, Brianna, Adriana etc.)

Ariana started out as a Portuguese form of the Greek mythological name Ariadne meaning "most holy," but from there jumped across languages and cultures and is used in many other places.  In the USA, it was overall #34 in 2018, if you combine all spellings. This name has more spellings in the top 7000 than any other name used in the USA since 1880. This is because Ariana has 4 different pronunciations in English: /air-e-ANN-a/, /ahr-e ANN-a/, /ahr e ON a/ and /air e ON a/. Many spellings represent a way to make the ambiguous pronunciation of the name more obvious (e.g., Aerionna would not be pronounced the same way as Ahriana). 

Here is every spelling recorded for the name Ariana recorded by the Social Security Administration. In order to make the list, a name has to have been given to at least 5 babies in a single year. There are probably more spellings out there, given to 1-4 babies in a year, but we may never know what they are!

The first instance of Ariana occurred in 1957. The most recent spelling was Ayriauna in 2015. Here are all the spellings in between:

Ariana	1957
Arianna	1963
Aryana	1985
Ariona	1987
Arrianna	1987
Aryanna	1988
Arriana	1988
Areana	1989
Areanna	1989
Arionna	1989
Auriana	1989
Eriana	1989
Arieanna	1990
Erianna	1990
Aireanna	1991
Aireona	1991
Ariyana	1991
Arreanna	1991
Arriona	1991
Aryonna	1991
Aurianna	1991
Arieana	1992
Aeriana	1992
Aerianna	1993
Airianna	1993
Ariauna	1993
Ariyanna	1993
Aariana	1994
Aariona	1994
Aireana	1994
Areona	1994
Ariannah	1994
Ariahna	1994
Aureanna	1994
Aurieona	1994
Ayriana	1994
Eriona	1994
Erionna	1994
Airiana	1995
Arianah	1995
Areonna	1995
Arieona	1995
Arieonna	1995
Aarianna	1996
Aarionna	1996
Arrionna	1996
Aireonna	1997
Areyana	1997
Areyanna	1997
Ariaunna	1997
Arriyanna	1997
Arryanna	1997
Aryona	1997
Ayrianna	1997
Ahriana	1998
Airyanna	1998
Ariyonna	1998
Arreona	1998
Arryana	1998
Eriyana	1998
Eriyonna	1998
Aaryanna	1999
Airyana	1999
Ariyona	1999
Arrieanna	1999
Aryanah	1999
Aryiana	1999
Eriyanna	1999
Aureana	1999
Aaryana	2000
Aerionna	2000
Areyona	2000
Arriyana	2000
Aryahna	2000
Auriona	2000
Ayreanna	2000
Ayreona	2000
Ayreonna	2000
Ahrianna	2001
Areianna	2001
Arieyana	2001
Aryianna	2001
Ayreana	2001
Eriyona	2001
Eryanna	2001
Areiana	2002
Areyonna	2002
Aryannah	2002
Auryana	2002
Ayrionna	2002
Aaryona	2003
Aeriona	2003
Airionna	2003
Arieyanna	2003
Ariyanah	2003
Arreonna	2003
Arryonna	2003
Aryauna	2003
Eryana	2003
Eryonna	2003
Aariyanna	2004
Aariyana	2004
Airiona	2004
Airyonna	2004
Areiona	2004
Ariyahna	2004
Ariyauna	2004
Aariyonna	2005
Arieyonna	2005
Arihana	2005
Ariyannah	2005
Arreana	2005
Aurionna	2005
Erieanna	2005
Aeryana	2006
Aeryanna	2006
Aeryona	2006
Arhianna	2006
Arihanna	2006
Erianah	2006
Rreanna	2006
Aariyona	2007
Ahreanna	2007
Arhiana	2007
Ariahnna	2007
Aireyana	2007
Aryhanna	2007
Auriyana	2007
Areionna	2008
Auryanna	2009
Erieonna	2009
Ayrihanna	2009
Aareona	2010
Airyona	2010
Arionah	2010
Ariyunna	2010
Arriannah	2010
Arriyanah	2011
Eriannah	2012
Arrihanna	2013
Ariahana	2014
Ariiana	2014
Ayriauna	2015