Anaka
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "beautiful, radiant one".
Name Census estimates that about 270 living Americans carry the first name Anaka. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anaka today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anaka births was 2006 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anaka. 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.
People living today
270
~ 1 in 1,269,461 Americans
Peak year
2006
26 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2019 SSA rank
#15,713
Tracked since 1982
Census
Anaka in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 334 people with the first name Anaka, which placed it at #27,416 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
#27,416
National first-name rank
People counted
334
334 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anaka
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anaka is White at 57.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and Black (11.4%). 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 Anaka 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 Anaka at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.5% · 192
- Hispanic or Latino13.8% · 46
- Black or African American11.4% · 38
- Two or more races9.6% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Anaka: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anaka from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 158 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Anaka remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anaka 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 Anaka during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anakas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Anaka
The name Anaka has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "anaka," which means "small" or "diminutive." The name is believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the regions where Sanskrit was widely spoken.
One of the earliest known references to the name Anaka can be found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, which is estimated to have been composed between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE. In this ancient text, Anaka is mentioned as the name of a minor character, a warrior who fought alongside the Pandavas in the great battle of Kurukshetra.
The name Anaka also appears in various Buddhist texts and scriptures, particularly those written in Pali, an ancient language closely related to Sanskrit. In these texts, Anaka is sometimes used as a metaphor or symbol for something small or insignificant, reflecting the original meaning of the word.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Anaka. One of the earliest recorded figures was Anaka of Pataliputra, a renowned scholar and philosopher who lived in the 3rd century BCE during the reign of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India. He is credited with making significant contributions to the field of logic and epistemology.
Another notable figure was Anaka Malla, a powerful king who ruled over the Kathmandu Valley in present-day Nepal during the 17th century. He was known for his architectural patronage and commissioned the construction of several temples and monuments, including the iconic Anaka Malla Sattal, a rest house for travelers.
In more recent times, Anaka Narayanan was an influential Indian writer and social activist who lived from 1928 to 2019. She was a prominent voice in the women's rights movement and authored several novels and short stories that explored themes of gender, caste, and social injustice.
Anaka Utsahi was a Nepali poet and lyricist who lived from 1925 to 2005. He is celebrated for his contributions to Nepali literature and is considered one of the pioneers of modern Nepali poetry.
Lastly, Anaka Gonavaram was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1936 to 2018. She was a renowned exponent of the Kuchipudi dance form and played a significant role in popularizing and preserving this traditional art form.
People
Anaka + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anaka 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
Anaka: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anaka?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 270 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anaka 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 1,269,461 US residents.
Is Anaka a common name?
We classify Anaka as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 275 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anaka most popular?
The single biggest year for Anaka was 2006, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anaka is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anaka in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 334 people with the name Anaka, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,416 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 Anaka 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 Anaka?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anaka appears almost entirely female. Of the 335 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 Anaka?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anaka is White at 57.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and Black (11.4%). 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 Anaka most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anaka in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.5% (192 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 Anaka in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anaka a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anaka 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 Anaka still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anaka 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 Anaka 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 called Anaka?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.