Anne
Of Hebrew origin meaning "favor" or "grace".
Name Census estimates that about 171,755 living Americans carry the first name Anne. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anne today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anne births was 1959 (5,755 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anne. 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 Anne with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Anne is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 827 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Anne have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
172K
~ 1 in 1,996 Americans
Peak year
1959
5,755 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1995 SSA rank
#649
Tracked since 1880
Census
Anne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 221,694 people with the first name Anne, which placed it at #252 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
#252
National first-name rank
People counted
222K
221,694 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
73.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anne is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%) and Black (3.2%). 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 Anne 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 Anne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.6% · 198,724
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 7,275
- Black or African American3.2% · 7,016
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 4,809
- Two or more races1.6% · 3,440
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 430
Gender
Gender distribution for Anne
Out of the 325,475 babies given the name Anne 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.
Anne as a male name
- Ranked #8,944 in 1995
- 5 male births in 1995
- Peak: 1989 (19 births)
Anne as a female name
- Ranked #649 in 2024
- 450 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (5,745 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anne appears almost entirely female. Of the 221,693 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Anne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anne 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 52,497 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
Anne 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 Anne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Annes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Anne, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,058 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anne
The name Anne has its origins in the ancient Hebrew name Hannah, which means "grace" or "favor." It is derived from the Hebrew word "hanan," meaning "to be gracious." The name gained popularity in early Christianity and was later adopted by various European cultures.
The earliest recorded use of the name Anne dates back to the 1st century AD, when it was mentioned in the New Testament as the name of a prophetess in the Gospel of Luke. This biblical reference helped popularize the name among early Christians.
In the 4th century, St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, became a prominent figure in early Christian tradition. Her cult following contributed to the widespread use of the name Anne throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
Anne was a popular name among European royalty and nobility. Notable examples include Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), the twice-crowned Queen of France, and Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536), the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, whose marriage played a significant role in the English Reformation.
In the literary world, Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672) was an influential American poet and the first female writer to be published in the British North American colonies. Anne Radcliffe (1764-1823) was an English author and a pioneer of the Gothic novel genre.
The name Anne has also been associated with notable scientists and activists. Anne Marie Lavoisier (1758-1836) was a French chemist and the wife of Antoine Lavoisier, known for her contributions to the advancement of chemistry. Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a German-Dutch diarist whose diary became a powerful testament to the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Throughout history, the name Anne has been a popular choice across various cultures and regions, reflecting its enduring appeal and significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Anne
People
Anne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anne 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
Anne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 171,755 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anne 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 1,996 US residents.
Is Anne a common name?
We classify Anne as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 325,475 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anne most popular?
The single biggest year for Anne was 1959, when 5,755 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anne is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 221,694 people with the name Anne, or 73.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #252 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 Anne 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 Anne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anne appears almost entirely female. Of the 221,693 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 Anne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anne is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%) and Black (3.2%). 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 Anne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.6% (198,724 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 Anne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anne a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Anne 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 Anne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anne 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 Anne 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 Anne?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.