In brief
- Solana has surged in baby name rankings since first appearing among the top 1,000 names in 2023.
- The name's Spanish and Latin origins refer to the sun, sunshine, or a sunny place.
- Solana Beach in California inspired the name of the Solana blockchain, with its founders having sentimental ties to the place.
Long before it was a blockchain, Solana was a word for sunshine. Now, it's shining as one of America's fastest-growing and trending baby names.
The name, derived from Spanish and Latin roots meaning the "sunshine" or "sunny place," has surged in popularity, according to new data from the Social Security Administration.
As a baby name, Solana has risen to the 242nd spot this year, up from 691st last year and 933rd in 2023, when it first joined the list of top 1,000 names.
Naming experts note that Solana, as a name, offers parents an appealing combination of melodic sound, evoking warmth and joy. Some also note that the name gained more popularity through Grammy-winning R&B artist SZA, whose full name is Solána Imani Rowe.

Crypto Trader Turns $332 Into $190K on Gooncoin as Solana Meme Coins Get Hot Again
A Solana meme coin trader turned $332—or less than 2 SOL at the time—into nearly $190,000 by trading a newly launched meme coin called Gooncoin over the past 24 hours. The GOONC token was introduced late Monday night via Believe App’s "Launch Coin" mechanism, which allows any X (formerly Twitter) user to create a Solana token in a post that tags the Launch Coin account. Since debuting, the token has skyrocketed 70,000% to a $54.6 million market cap. @launchcoin + gooncoin — Pata van Goon (@b...
The name's linguistic origins trace back centuries in Spanish-speaking regions, where "solana" traditionally referred to sun-exposed places in Mediterranean landscapes, particularly the sunny side of mountains or valleys.
Meanwhile, the Dictionary of the Spanish Language defines "solana" as a place, room, or land oriented toward the sun. The word "sol" means "sun" in Latin.
But for the Solana blockchain, the name has simpler roots. It refers to Solana Beach in California, where Solana co-founders Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko first met.
"Solana comes from Solana Beach. Me and my co-founders lived there, we'd wake up, we'd surf, bike to work, go back home, and surf again," Yakovenko said in a 2023 interview.

Solana Meme Coin Moo Deng Flies 530% in a Week Amid 'Macro Hopium'
Meme coins have been pumping hard amid a wider crypto market surge, with Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing $100,000 on Thursday and Ethereum (ETH) passing $2,500 on Saturday. Moo Deng (MOODENG) is the biggest meme coin winner of the week, soaring 533% to a market cap of $242 million, much to the surprise of much of the crypto community. The token hit an all-time high of $614 million in November as the baby pygmy hippo reached peak virality inside and outside of crypto. Since then, mindshare for Moo Deng—...
The project has since grown into one of the most prominent Layer 1 blockchains, currently processing 4,388 transactions per second with 86.5% in circulating supply, according to live data from Solana Explorer.
Institutional plays for Solana have also begun, with corporations stocking up for their treasuries and some offering convertible notes to do so. In March, a Florida-based issuer launched a Solana futures ETF, with more on the way.
At the time of writing, Solana maintains its 6th spot in the top ten cryptos by market cap, trading at $184, rising 40% over the past month and up 25% in the past year, data from CoinGecko shows.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
Daily Debrief Newsletter

