According to geographer Pavel Deliradev, the name comes from a combination of its "crazy" flow after heavy rains and a Bulgarian maiden from the period of the Ottoman rule in Bulgaria named Yana, who according to local legend threw herself into the river rather than being forced into a marriage with a Turk.

According to the linguist Stefan Mladenov, it is possible that the word "Yana" meant river in the ancient Thracian language.

The Luda Yana takes its source at an altitude of 1,423 m near the western foothills of the summit of Bich (1,449 m) in the mountain range of Sredna Gora.

[2] It flows in a southwestern direction in a deep valley and turns southwards a few kilometers upstream from the town of Panagyurishte.

Close to the village of Rosen it enters the Upper Thracian Plain and flows in a wide sandy riverbed.