Jana — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ج-ن-ي (j-n-y), "to pluck, to gather what has ripened". Janā is what has been picked: fresh fruit taken by hand at the moment it is ready — not fruit in general, but the gathered harvest.

From the same root: janā and ijtanā (to pluck), jany (the picking itself), jānī (the one who gathers). The Qur'an uses the word of the two gardens described in Surah ar-Rahman: their fruit is within reach, wa janā l-jannatayni dān (55:54).

Note on a near root: ج-ن-ن, which gives janna (garden), janīn (an unborn child), jinn and junūn, is a different root turning on concealment — a garden is called janna because its trees hide the ground. The dictionaries keep the two apart, though the fruit of a janna and the janā gathered from it sit naturally side by side.

Spellings: Jana, Janna (a different name), Jena, Cena (Turkish transcription), Jana (Indonesian), Jana (Urdu), Jana / Jena (French), جنى.

Pronunciation: ja-NĀ, stress on the second syllable. The final letter is alif maqṣūra, written like a y but sounded as a long a.

Note: this is not the European Jana, which is a form of Jane and Johanna. The two coincide in sound only.