Anniyah
A name of Arabic origin meaning "answered prayer" or "gift from God".
Name Census estimates that about 804 living Americans carry the first name Anniyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anniyah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anniyah births was 2009 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anniyah. 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 Anniyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
804
~ 1 in 426,311 Americans
Peak year
2009
63 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,159
Tracked since 1997
Census
Anniyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 565 people with the first name Anniyah, which placed it at #18,938 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
#18,938
National first-name rank
People counted
565
565 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anniyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anniyah is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (15.4%) and Hispanic (13.5%). 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 Anniyah 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 Anniyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.1% · 328
- Two or more races15.4% · 87
- Hispanic or Latino13.5% · 76
- White6.7% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
Popularity
Anniyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anniyah 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 393 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anniyah 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 Anniyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anniyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Anniyah, while Michigan, Illinois, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anniyah
The name Anniyah is a feminine Arabic name derived from the word "Ani" meaning "to return" or "to come back." It is believed to have originated in the Middle East during the 7th century AD, around the time of the Islamic Golden Age.
The earliest known record of the name Anniyah can be traced back to a poem written by the famous Arabic poet Al-Khansa (575-645 AD), where she mentions a woman named Anniyah. This suggests that the name was already in use during the early days of Islam.
In Islamic tradition, the name Anniyah is often associated with the concept of repentance and returning to Allah. It is believed that the name carries a spiritual significance and serves as a reminder for individuals to seek forgiveness and embrace a righteous path.
One of the most renowned historical figures with the name Anniyah was Anniyah bint Abi Bakr (610-684 AD), the daughter of the first Caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr. She was known for her piety, knowledge of the Quran, and her role as a respected scholar and teacher.
Another notable figure was Anniyah al-Sulami (d. 920 AD), a Sufi mystic and poet from Baghdad. Her writings and teachings had a profound impact on the development of Sufism and Islamic spirituality during the Abbasid Caliphate.
In the 12th century, Anniyah al-Qurashiya (1098-1180 AD) was a prominent female scholar and jurist from Cordoba, Andalusia. She was highly respected for her expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and her contributions to the field of Maliki fiqh.
During the Ottoman Empire, Anniyah Sultan (1533-1605) was a influential member of the Ottoman imperial family. She was the daughter of Sultan Selim II and played a significant role in the political and cultural affairs of the empire.
More recently, Anniyah Nana Mahmoud (1923-2018) was a renowned Egyptian writer and journalist. She was known for her powerful literary works that explored themes of social justice, women's rights, and the struggles of the Arab world.
People
Anniyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anniyah 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
Anniyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anniyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 804 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anniyah 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 426,311 US residents.
Is Anniyah a common name?
We classify Anniyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 812 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anniyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Anniyah was 2009, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anniyah is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anniyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 565 people with the name Anniyah, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,938 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 Anniyah 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 Anniyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anniyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 561 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Anniyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anniyah is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (15.4%) and Hispanic (13.5%). 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 Anniyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Anniyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (328 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 Anniyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anniyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anniyah 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 Anniyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anniyah 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 Anniyah 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 Anniyah?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.