Anabel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace from God".
Name Census estimates that about 8,595 living Americans carry the first name Anabel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anabel today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anabel births was 2014 (297 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anabel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Anabel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.6K
~ 1 in 39,878 Americans
Peak year
2014
297 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1993 SSA rank
#3,570
Tracked since 1882
Census
Anabel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,171 people with the first name Anabel, which placed it at #1,887 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,887
National first-name rank
People counted
15K
15,171 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
85.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anabel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anabel is Hispanic at 85.0%. The next largest groups are White (10.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Anabel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Anabel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino85.0% · 12,902
- White10.6% · 1,608
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 388
- Two or more races0.8% · 128
- Black or African American0.8% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Anabel
Out of the 9,781 babies given the name Anabel since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Anabel as a male name
- Ranked #8,746 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1989 (10 births)
Anabel as a female name
- Ranked #3,570 in 2024
- 43 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (297 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anabel appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,166 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Anabel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anabel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,290 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anabel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Anabel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anabels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Anabel, while Utah, South Carolina, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 208 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anabel
The name Anabel has its origins in the Latin name Amabilis, which means "lovable" or "amiable." It is a feminine form of the Latin word "amabilis," derived from the verb "amare," meaning "to love." The name first appeared in medieval Europe, particularly in areas influenced by Latin culture and the Roman Catholic Church.
In the early Middle Ages, the name Anabel gained popularity among the aristocracy and noble families who favored names with Latin roots. It was often bestowed upon daughters as a reflection of their desired qualities of grace, beauty, and likability. The name was commonly spelled as "Amabel" during this period, with variations such as "Amabilia" and "Amabelle" also being used.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Anabel can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Amabil," referring to a landowner in the county of Warwickshire.
Throughout the centuries, several notable historical figures bore the name Anabel. Amabel of Arden (c. 1355-1420) was a wealthy English heiress known for her philanthropic contributions to religious institutions. Amabel Whetenhall (c. 1445-1505) was an English noblewoman and the wife of Sir John Whetenhall, a prominent military commander during the Wars of the Roses.
In the 16th century, Amabel Keyes (c. 1545-1620) was an English Protestant martyr who was burned at the stake for her religious beliefs during the reign of Queen Mary I. Anabel Barnard (1597-1650) was an English Puritan who settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony and became one of the founders of the town of Andover.
During the 18th century, Amabel Hume-Campbell (1751-1833) was a Scottish aristocrat and courtier who served as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. She was known for her wit and charm within the royal court.
As the name transitioned into modern times, variations like Anabel and Annabel became more prevalent, while the original spelling of Amabel gradually fell out of favor. However, the name has maintained its connection to its Latin roots, symbolizing qualities of affection, grace, and charm.
People
Anabel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anabel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Anabel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anabel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,595 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anabel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 39,878 US residents.
Is Anabel a common name?
We classify Anabel as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,781 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anabel most popular?
The single biggest year for Anabel was 2014, when 297 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anabel is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anabel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,171 people with the name Anabel, or 5.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,887 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Anabel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Anabel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anabel appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,166 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Anabel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anabel is Hispanic at 85.0%. The next largest groups are White (10.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Anabel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Anabel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.0% (12,902 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Anabel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anabel a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Anabel in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Anabel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anabel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Anabel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Anabel?
Want to know how many people share the name Anabel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.