Lyanna exists because of one source: George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, and the HBO adaptation that made that source available to millions who never read the books. With a 2019 peak and 3,466 total SSA records at rank 957, its trajectory maps almost perfectly onto Game of Thrones' cultural dominance.
A Fictional Creation With Real Resonance
Lyanna Stark — Jon Snow's mother, whose story drives much of the hidden history in Thrones — is a character defined by passion, consequence, and a love that changed the world. She appears only in fragments: in memories, in visions, in a single extended revelation scene in Season 6 that had viewers frozen. The name Lyanna has no pre-existing etymological history; Martin appears to have created it, possibly influenced by Liana, Leanna, or the Welsh Liana. Its origin in the SSA data is listed as "Unknown" precisely because it's a literary invention without independent roots. That's not unusual — Arya from the same series has Sanskrit roots; Lyanna doesn't have that kind of independent anchor.
The Fantasy-Name Aesthetic
Lyanna fits a naming aesthetic that values the sound and feel of invented or unfamiliar names — feminine, ending in -anna, with a melodic three-syllable structure. It sits alongside names like Rhaella, Daenerys (much rarer on charts), and the more mainstream Lyra in the fantasy-adjacent naming space. Parents who chose it in 2018-2020 were making an explicit cultural statement about their relationship with the Thrones universe. The name sounds like it could have existed independently, which is a mark in its favor, unlike some very show-specific names. Browse rising names to see whether the fantasy-name aesthetic is holding.
Counter-Reading: The Franchise Association
A name invented for a fictional character in a still-active franchise is permanently tethered to that story. Lyanna Stark's narrative is complete. She exists in the past tense of the story, which gives the name a certain melancholic beauty but also a fixed association. If the Game of Thrones universe ages poorly, or if the planned prequel series recontextualizes her story, the name's associations shift accordingly. For parents who are fully committed fans, that's part of what makes the name meaningful. For parents who mostly like the sound, Leanna or Liana offer the same phonetic territory without the franchise dependency.