The story in the numbers

912,251 girls have been named Anna in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 15,666 births — 1.4% of all girls recorded that year.

It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 34 → 94).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1939, and the 1920s alone account for 14%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 135 of them in the top 100 and 41 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 2,756 boys have also been given it, 0.30% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Anna

38,159

55,261

54,918

118,998

123,894

66,598

41,281

41,700

40,929

37,811

57,325

78,591

90,307

51,305

15,174

In 1918, its biggest year

Anna was the 10th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1918 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1918.

Names that rose and fell with Anna

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.