Combination of Rosa (rose) and Anna (grace), meaning 'graceful rose.'
Rosana is a name that blooms from two great naming traditions simultaneously. At its most common interpretation it is a compound of Rosa — from the Latin rosa, the rose, that most universal symbol of love, beauty, and transience — and Anna, descended from the Hebrew Hannah (חַנָּה), meaning "grace" or "favor with God." The combination was popular across Romance-language cultures, particularly in Italy and Spain, where Rosanna and Rosana flourished as a single lyrical breath of a name.
A secondary etymology derives Rosana from the Persian Roshanak — "little star" or "dawn" — which Greek-speakers rendered as Roxane, the name of the Bactrian princess who married Alexander the Great. The Persian thread runs through centuries of Western art and literature. Roxane was immortalized in Edmund Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac as the luminously witty and beautiful object of Cyrano's desperate devotion, a character so vivid she made the name romantic shorthand for an intelligent woman worth writing poetry for.
The rock band Toto wrote their 1982 hit "Rosanna" as an affectionate tribute to actress Rosanna Arquette, cementing the name in pop-cultural memory. Across Latin America, Rosana remains a name with deep Catholic resonance, often given in devotion to the Virgin Mary under her many floral titles. The spelling Rosana — with a single 'n' — gives the name a cleaner, more continental feel, common in Spanish-speaking communities. It sits elegantly between the familiar and the distinctive, carrying rose-garden beauty, Persian starlight, and centuries of romantic literature in its four syllables.