Anabela
Of Portuguese origin meaning "blossoming beauty" or "beautiful flower".
Name Census estimates that about 508 living Americans carry the first name Anabela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anabela today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anabela births was 2014 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anabela. 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 Anabela with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
508
~ 1 in 674,713 Americans
Peak year
2014
32 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,579
Tracked since 1970
Census
Anabela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,303 people with the first name Anabela, which placed it at #10,298 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
#10,298
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,303 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anabela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anabela is White at 56.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.8%) and Black (3.1%). 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 Anabela 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 Anabela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.9% · 741
- Hispanic or Latino36.8% · 480
- Black or African American3.1% · 40
- Two or more races1.8% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 18
Popularity
Anabela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anabela from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 181 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anabela 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 Anabela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anabelas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Florida, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Anabela, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anabela
The name Anabela is a feminine given name of Portuguese origin. It is a compound name, derived from the Greek prefix "ana" meaning "again" or "back", and the Latin word "bella" meaning "beautiful". The name essentially translates to "beautiful again" or "renewed beauty".
In Portuguese culture, the name Anabela gained popularity during the late medieval period, around the 15th century. It was often bestowed upon daughters born after a period of struggle or hardship, symbolizing the renewal of hope and the return of beauty and joy into the family's life.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Anabela can be found in the historical records of the Portuguese royal court during the reign of King Afonso V (1432-1481). Anabela de Sousa, born in 1456, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabella of Portugal and is mentioned in several court documents from that era.
During the Age of Discovery, as Portuguese explorers ventured across the seas, the name Anabela traveled with them. Anabela Fernandes (1510-1575) was a pioneering woman who accompanied her husband, a navigator, on several voyages to the Americas and played a crucial role in establishing early Portuguese settlements in Brazil.
In the realm of literature, the name Anabela gained prominence with the publication of the famous 19th-century Portuguese novel "Os Maias" by Eça de Queirós. One of the central characters, Anabela Teodora dos Reis, embodied the virtues of beauty, grace, and resilience, contributing to the name's enduring popularity.
Anabela Milhazes (born 1957) is a renowned contemporary Brazilian artist known for her vibrant and colorful abstract paintings, which often incorporate elements of Portuguese and Brazilian cultural motifs. Her work has been exhibited globally and is celebrated for its unique fusion of traditional and modern styles.
Another notable figure is Anabela Rodrigues (born 1959), a Portuguese singer-songwriter and actress who has had a prolific career spanning over four decades. She has released numerous albums and has starred in several Portuguese films and television series, becoming a cultural icon in her home country.
People
Anabela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anabela 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
Anabela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anabela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 508 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anabela 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 674,713 US residents.
Is Anabela a common name?
We classify Anabela as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 524 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anabela most popular?
The single biggest year for Anabela was 2014, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anabela is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anabela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,303 people with the name Anabela, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,298 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 Anabela 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 Anabela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anabela appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,310 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Anabela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anabela is White at 56.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.8%) and Black (3.1%). 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 Anabela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anabela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.9% (741 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 Anabela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anabela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anabela 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 Anabela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anabela 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 Anabela 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 Anabela?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.