Variant of Savannah, from Spanish 'sabana' meaning treeless plain, also a Georgia place name.
Savana is a variant of Savannah, a name drawn from the geographical term for a tropical grassland — itself derived from the Taíno word zabana, which Spanish explorers recorded in the Caribbean as sabana, meaning an open, treeless plain. The word entered English through Spanish colonial cartography in the 16th century and eventually lent its name to the city of Savannah, Georgia, founded in 1733 as the first settlement of the Georgia Colony. The city's graceful squares, antebellum architecture, and Spanish-moss-draped streets gave Savannah a romantic Southern atmosphere that influenced how the name was perceived when it began appearing as a given name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Savannah as a first name gained significant momentum in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, cresting in popularity as Southern-influenced names and nature-inspired names converged in mainstream tastes. It drew additional cultural visibility through various film and television characters, and through associations with the city of Savannah's identity as one of America's most storied and atmospheric places. The name evoked a specific aesthetic: warm, graceful, unhurried, with a hint of wild, open landscape beneath its cultured surface.
Savana with a single 'n' is the streamlined variant, used in several European countries — including Spain and Italy — as the standard spelling, where the double-n of the English form feels orthographically foreign. In the United States, it represents a parental customization, trimming the name slightly without altering its sound or identity. S. charts consistently alongside its double-n counterpart, offering families the same warm landscape imagery and Southern elegance in a slightly sleeker package.