Anish
Of Sanskrit origin, meaning "priceless, valuable" or "imperishable, eternal".
Name Census estimates that about 3,048 living Americans carry the first name Anish. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Anish today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anish births was 2010 (184 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anish. 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 Anish with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 112,452 Americans
Peak year
2010
184 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,314
Tracked since 1970
Census
Anish in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,403 people with the first name Anish, which placed it at #4,307 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
#4,307
National first-name rank
People counted
4.4K
4,403 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anish
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anish is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.8%. The next largest groups are White (2.0%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). 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 Anish 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 Anish at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.8% · 4,175
- White2.0% · 87
- Two or more races0.9% · 40
- Black or African American0.8% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 33
Popularity
Anish: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anish from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,346 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anish 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 Anish during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anishs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Anish, while Missouri, Kansas, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 93 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anish
The name Anish has its roots in the Sanskrit language, which originated in ancient India several thousand years ago. It is derived from the word "anish," which means "blessing" or "grace." The name is believed to have been in use as early as the 5th century BCE, during the time of the Vedic period in Indian history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Anish can be found in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic that dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In the epic, Anish is mentioned as the name of a warrior who fought alongside the Pandavas in the great battle of Kurukshetra.
Throughout the centuries, the name Anish has been popular among various religious and cultural groups in India, particularly among Hindus and Sikhs. It has also been adopted by some Muslim communities in the region.
One of the most notable historical figures to bear the name Anish was Anish Kapoor, a renowned British-Indian sculptor who was born in 1954. Kapoor is best known for his large-scale public artworks, including the iconic "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Another famous individual with the name Anish was Anish Giri, a Dutch chess grandmaster who was born in 1994. Giri has won numerous international chess tournaments and is considered one of the top players in the world.
In the field of literature, Anish Deb was a notable Bengali writer and poet who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born in 1856 and is renowned for his contributions to the Bengali literary renaissance.
Anish Kapoor, the Indian-American filmmaker and director, was born in 1964 and has directed several critically acclaimed films, including "The Warrior" and "Monsoon Wedding."
Lastly, Anish Nanavati was an Indian cricketer who played domestic cricket for the Saurashtra team in the 1970s and 1980s. He was born in 1954 and is remembered as a skilled all-rounder who contributed significantly to his team's success during his playing career.
People
Anish + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anish 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
Anish: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anish?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,048 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anish 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 112,452 US residents.
Is Anish a common name?
We classify Anish as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,095 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anish most popular?
The single biggest year for Anish was 2010, when 184 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anish 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 Anish in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,403 people with the name Anish, or 1.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,307 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 Anish 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 Anish?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anish appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,400 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Anish?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anish is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.8%. The next largest groups are White (2.0%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). 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 Anish most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Anish in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.8% (4,175 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 Anish in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anish a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anish 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 Anish still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anish 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 Anish 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 Anish?
Find out how many people share the name Anish on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.