Anita
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "grace" or "graceful".
Name Census estimates that about 123,726 living Americans carry the first name Anita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anita today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anita births was 1957 (5,831 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anita. 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 Anita with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Anita is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 684 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Anita have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
124K
~ 1 in 2,770 Americans
Peak year
1957
5,831 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1990 SSA rank
#1,463
Tracked since 1880
Census
Anita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 164,323 people with the first name Anita, which placed it at #338 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
#338
National first-name rank
People counted
164K
164,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
54.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anita is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Hispanic (13.7%). 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 Anita 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 Anita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.5% · 101,129
- Black or African American14.0% · 23,071
- Hispanic or Latino13.7% · 22,446
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.4% · 12,119
- Two or more races2.5% · 4,028
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,530
Gender
Gender distribution for Anita
Out of the 215,683 babies given the name Anita since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Anita as a male name
- Ranked #7,222 in 1990
- 6 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1961 (21 births)
Anita as a female name
- Ranked #1,463 in 2024
- 149 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (5,811 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anita appears almost entirely female. Of the 164,324 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Anita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anita from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 47,701 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anita 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 Anita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anitas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Anita, while Alaska, Nevada, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,080 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anita
The name Anita has its roots in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, derived from the Hebrew name Anna, which means "gracious" or "full of grace." It's believed to have originated around the Middle Ages, possibly as a diminutive form of the name Anna.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Anita can be found in the 16th century. In 1557, Anita de los Ríos, a Spanish noblewoman, was mentioned in historical records. She was known for her involvement in the Spanish Court during the reign of King Philip II.
The name Anita gained popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in Spain and Portugal. During this time, several notable individuals bore this name, including Anita Garibaldi (1821-1849), an Italian revolutionary and wife of the famous Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. She played a significant role in the Italian Unification movement.
Another prominent figure named Anita was Anita Pollitzer (1894-1975), an American women's rights activist and artist. She was a leading figure in the National Woman's Party and worked tirelessly for the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote in the United States.
In the literary world, Anita Brookner (1928-2016) was a renowned British novelist and art historian. She won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1984 for her novel "Hotel du Lac" and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990.
Anita O'Day (1919-2006) was an influential American jazz singer known for her distinctive vibrato and unique phrasing. She recorded numerous albums and performed with notable musicians like Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich, contributing significantly to the development of vocal jazz.
Throughout history, the name Anita has been associated with individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and achievements, reflecting its enduring popularity and timeless appeal.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Anita
People
Anita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anita 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
Anita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 123,726 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anita 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 2,770 US residents.
Is Anita a common name?
We classify Anita as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 215,683 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anita most popular?
The single biggest year for Anita was 1957, when 5,831 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anita is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 164,323 people with the name Anita, or 54.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #338 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 Anita 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 Anita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anita appears almost entirely female. Of the 164,324 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Anita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anita is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Hispanic (13.7%). 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 Anita most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (101,129 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 Anita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anita a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Anita 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 Anita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anita 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 Anita 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 Anita?
You can see how many Americans are named Anita on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.