Ananya
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "endless" or "infinite".
Name Census estimates that about 3,920 living Americans carry the first name Ananya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ananya today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ananya births was 2008 (214 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ananya. 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 Ananya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ananya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 87,437 Americans
Peak year
2008
214 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2020 SSA rank
#2,299
Tracked since 1995
Census
Ananya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,632 people with the first name Ananya, which placed it at #4,142 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
#4,142
National first-name rank
People counted
4.6K
4,632 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
92.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ananya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ananya is Asian/Pacific Islander at 92.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.8%). 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 Ananya 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 Ananya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander92.7% · 4,296
- White2.2% · 104
- Two or more races1.8% · 85
- Black or African American1.7% · 78
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 24
Gender
Gender distribution for Ananya
Out of the 3,963 babies given the name Ananya since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Ananya as a male name
- Ranked #12,140 in 2020
- 5 male births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (5 births)
Ananya as a female name
- Ranked #2,299 in 2024
- 80 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (214 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ananya leans strongly female. 4,514 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 120 male bearers (2.6%).
Popularity
Ananya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ananya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,679 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
Ananya 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 Ananya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ananyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Ananya, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 148 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ananya
The name Ananya has its origins in the Sanskrit language, an ancient and classical language of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the word "ananya," which means "unique," "incomparable," or "without equal." The name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, as early as the 4th century BCE.
Ananya is a popular name among Hindus and is often associated with Hindu mythology and religious texts. It is found in the Puranas, a vast collection of ancient Hindu scriptures, where it is sometimes used to describe the divine or the ultimate reality. The name is also mentioned in the Upanishads, a collection of philosophical texts that form the theoretical basis of Hinduism.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ananya can be found in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In this epic, Ananya is the name of a female character who is described as a beautiful and virtuous woman. The name is also mentioned in other ancient Indian texts, such as the Vedas and the Ramayana.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ananya. One of the earliest recorded examples is Ananya, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet who lived in the 7th century CE. She is known for her works on grammar, poetry, and philosophy.
Another notable person with the name Ananya was Ananya Devi, a Bengali poet and writer who lived in the 19th century. She is considered one of the pioneers of modern Bengali literature and is known for her contributions to the development of the Bengali language and literature.
In more recent times, Ananya Panday, an Indian actress and model born in 1998, has gained popularity for her roles in Bollywood films such as Student of the Year 2 and Liger.
Ananya Birla, an Indian businesswoman, singer, and songwriter born in 1994, is another prominent figure with this name. She is the daughter of the billionaire industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and is known for her successful career in both business and music.
Ananya Vinay, an Indian-American student, gained international recognition in 2017 when she won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee competition at the age of 12.
People
Ananya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ananya 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
Ananya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ananya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,920 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ananya 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 87,437 US residents.
Is Ananya a common name?
We classify Ananya as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,963 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ananya most popular?
The single biggest year for Ananya was 2008, when 214 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ananya is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ananya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,632 people with the name Ananya, or 1.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,142 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 Ananya 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 Ananya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ananya leans strongly female. 4,514 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 120 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Ananya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ananya is Asian/Pacific Islander at 92.7%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Two or More Races (1.8%). 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 Ananya most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ananya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.7% (4,296 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 Ananya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ananya a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Ananya 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 Ananya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ananya 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 Ananya 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 share the name Ananya?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.