Anniston
A feminine name derived from the English surname Anniston, of unknown meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 3,491 living Americans carry the first name Anniston. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anniston today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anniston births was 2014 (302 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anniston. 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.
Key insights
- • Anniston is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 98,182 Americans
Peak year
2014
302 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,386
Tracked since 1996
Census
Anniston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,556 people with the first name Anniston, which placed it at #6,317 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
#6,317
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,556 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anniston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anniston is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Anniston 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 Anniston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.1% · 2,225
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 124
- Two or more races4.8% · 122
- Black or African American2.0% · 51
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 10
Popularity
Anniston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anniston 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 2,207 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Anniston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anniston 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 Anniston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Annistons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Georgia, Tennessee, Texas recorded the most babies named Anniston, while West Virginia, Washington, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 94 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anniston
The given name Anniston is a relatively modern name that emerged in the late 19th century. It is thought to be derived from the name of the city of Anniston, Alabama, which was founded in 1872. The city itself was named after Annie Scott, the daughter of one of the town's founders, Samuel Noble.
The name Anniston does not have any direct linguistic roots or origins from ancient languages or cultures. It is an invented name that combines the name Annie with the suffix "-ston," which is a common English suffix for place names, particularly towns and cities.
There are no known historical references or appearances of the name Anniston in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records before the late 19th century, as it is a relatively modern name.
One of the earliest known individuals with the first name Anniston was Anniston McCaskill, who was born in Alabama in the late 19th century. Beyond this, records of individuals with the name Anniston from that time period are scarce.
Notable individuals with the first name Anniston throughout history include:
1. Anniston Jones (1902-1978), an American writer and journalist from Alabama.
2. Anniston Browning (1915-2003), an American artist and sculptor from Georgia.
3. Anniston Caldwell (1927-2015), an American actress and singer from Texas.
4. Anniston Wilkins (1935-2019), an American civil rights activist and community organizer from Mississippi.
5. Anniston Reynolds (1941-2022), an American businesswoman and philanthropist from California.
While the name Anniston is not a common or widely used name, it has been present in various parts of the United States, particularly in the South, since its emergence in the late 19th century.
People
Anniston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anniston 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
Anniston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anniston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,491 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anniston 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 98,182 US residents.
Is Anniston a common name?
We classify Anniston as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,520 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anniston most popular?
The single biggest year for Anniston was 2014, when 302 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anniston is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anniston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,556 people with the name Anniston, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,317 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 Anniston 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 Anniston?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anniston appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,558 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Anniston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anniston is White at 87.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Anniston most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anniston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.1% (2,225 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 Anniston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anniston a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anniston 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 Anniston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anniston 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 Anniston 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 Americans are named Anniston?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.