Anaya
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "form of grace".
Name Census estimates that about 16,908 living Americans carry the first name Anaya. It sits at #405 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anaya today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anaya births was 2016 (837 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anaya. 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 Anaya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Anaya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
17K
~ 1 in 20,272 Americans
Peak year
2016
837 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#405
Tracked since 1978
Census
Anaya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,709 people with the first name Anaya, which placed it at #2,235 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
#2,235
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,709 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anaya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anaya is Black at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Anaya 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 Anaya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.3% · 4,601
- Hispanic or Latino25.5% · 2,990
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.0% · 2,341
- Two or more races7.9% · 925
- White6.3% · 735
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 117
Popularity
Anaya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anaya 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 7,186 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Anaya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anaya 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 Anaya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Anaya, while Delaware, New Hampshire, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 368 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anaya
The name Anaya is a Sanskrit baby name that originated in India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "anaya," which means "without blemish," "immaculate," or "pure." The name first appeared in ancient Hindu texts and scriptures, such as the Vedas and Upanishads, which date back to around 1500-500 BCE.
The earliest recorded use of the name Anaya can be traced back to the 6th century CE, when it was mentioned in a Sanskrit inscription found in the Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India. The inscription referred to a woman named Anaya, who was likely a member of the royal family or a prominent figure of that time.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Anaya was Anaya Devi, a 12th-century Hindu queen who ruled over the Chahamana dynasty in Rajasthan, India. She was known for her patronage of art, architecture, and literature, and her reign was marked by prosperity and cultural achievements.
In the 14th century, there was a famous Sufi mystic and poet named Anaya al-Misri, who lived in Egypt. Her poems and writings focused on spiritual themes and the love of God, and she is celebrated as one of the most influential female Sufi mystics of her time.
Anaya Sampath was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived in the 20th century (1920-2005). She was a pioneer in the field of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form, and was recognized for her contributions to preserving and promoting this art form.
Another notable figure with the name Anaya was Anaya Kalantry, an Indian-American lawyer and academic who is currently a professor at Cornell Law School. She has been recognized for her work in the areas of human rights, gender equality, and international law, and has authored several publications on these topics.
Throughout history, the name Anaya has been associated with purity, grace, and spiritual enlightenment, reflecting its Sanskrit origins and the cultural significance it holds in the Indian subcontinent.
People
Anaya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anaya 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
Anaya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anaya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16,908 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anaya 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 20,272 US residents.
Is Anaya a common name?
We classify Anaya as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,080 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anaya most popular?
The single biggest year for Anaya was 2016, when 837 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anaya is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anaya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,709 people with the name Anaya, or 3.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,235 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 Anaya 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 Anaya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anaya appears almost entirely female. Of the 11,706 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Anaya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anaya is Black at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Anaya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Anaya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.3% (4,601 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 Anaya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anaya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anaya 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 Anaya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anaya 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 Anaya 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 Anaya?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.