Ananias
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Jehovah has graced" or "protected by Jehovah".
Name Census estimates that about 703 living Americans carry the first name Ananias. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ananias today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ananias births was 2024 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ananias. 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
703
~ 1 in 487,560 Americans
Peak year
2024
48 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,707
Tracked since 1883
Census
Ananias in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 711 people with the first name Ananias, which placed it at #16,004 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
#16,004
National first-name rank
People counted
711
711 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
36.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ananias
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ananias is Black at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.9%) and White (20.0%). 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 Ananias 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 Ananias at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American36.0% · 256
- Hispanic or Latino32.9% · 234
- White20.0% · 142
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 47
- Two or more races4.4% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Ananias: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ananias from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 224 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ananias 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 Ananias during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ananias' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ananias
The name Ananias is derived from the Hebrew name Hananiah, which means "Yahweh has been gracious" or "favored by God." It has its roots in ancient Israel and the Hebrew language, dating back to biblical times.
The earliest known reference to the name Ananias can be found in the New Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Acts, Ananias was a disciple of Jesus who lived in Damascus and was sent by God to restore the sight of Saul, who later became the apostle Paul. This Ananias is believed to have lived in the 1st century AD.
Another notable Ananias mentioned in the Bible was a member of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. According to the Book of Acts, he and his wife Sapphira were struck dead by God for lying about their financial contributions to the church. This event is believed to have taken place around 33-35 AD.
Throughout history, the name Ananias has been used by various individuals, including:
1. Ananias of Shirak (7th century AD), an Armenian religious leader and scholar who played a significant role in the development of the Armenian Church.
2. Ananias the Defter (9th century AD), a Byzantine scholar and calligrapher known for his exceptional penmanship.
3. Ananias of Khlat (10th century AD), an Armenian philosopher and theologian who made significant contributions to the intellectual life of medieval Armenia.
4. Ananias the Eder (15th century AD), a prominent Armenian merchant and diplomat who served as a representative of the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire.
5. Ananias Shirakatsi (16th century AD), an Armenian poet and theologian who wrote extensively on religious and philosophical themes.
The name Ananias has been used in various cultures and regions over the centuries, but its roots can be traced back to the Hebrew language and the biblical narratives of the New Testament.
People
Ananias + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ananias 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
Ananias: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ananias?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 703 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ananias 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 487,560 US residents.
Is Ananias a common name?
We classify Ananias as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 902 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ananias most popular?
The single biggest year for Ananias was 2024, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ananias is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ananias in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 711 people with the name Ananias, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,004 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 Ananias 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 Ananias?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ananias leans strongly male. 662 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 46 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Ananias?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ananias is Black at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.9%) and White (20.0%). 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 Ananias most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ananias in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.0% (256 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 Ananias in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ananias a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ananias in the SSA data are male. 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 Ananias still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ananias 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 Ananias 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 Ananias?
Find out how many Americans are named Ananias on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.