Lashana

Meaning of Lashana

Lashana is a feminine given name of probable African American coinage, formed by the affixation of the prefix La- to Shana, itself a variant of the Gaelic Shona and the Hebrew name Shanah, meaning “lily” or “year.” Phonetically, it is rendered in English as /ləˈʃɑːnə/, with an onset lateral approximant, a medial stressed open-back unrounded vowel, and a final schwa, yielding a balanced three-syllable prosody. New York State birth registrations between 1974 and 1986 reveal that Lashana occupied a low-frequency niche, appearing intermittently in the top 250—peaking at eight occurrences (rank 234) in 1980 and stabilizing around rank 236 with six recorded newborns in 1986—thereby illustrating its sustained yet selective adoption. Such statistical steadiness aligns with broader patterns of onomastic innovation within African American communities during the late twentieth century, in which creative morphological constructions functioned as markers of cultural identity. Furthermore, the international visibility of figures like actress Lashana Lynch has enhanced the name’s recognition across Anglophone contexts, underscoring its evolving cultural resonance.