Anthea
Feminine name of Greek origin meaning "flower" or "blooming".
Name Census estimates that about 758 living Americans carry the first name Anthea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anthea today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anthea births was 1990 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anthea. 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 Anthea with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
758
~ 1 in 452,183 Americans
Peak year
1990
20 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,592
Tracked since 1932
Census
Anthea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,209 people with the first name Anthea, which placed it at #10,842 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
#10,842
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,209 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anthea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anthea is White at 51.9%. The next largest groups are Black (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Anthea 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 Anthea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.9% · 627
- Black or African American21.7% · 262
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.1% · 170
- Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 76
- Two or more races5.7% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
Popularity
Anthea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anthea from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 138 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Anthea remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anthea 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 Anthea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Antheas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Anthea
The name Anthea has its origins in ancient Greek mythology and literature. It is derived from the Greek word "anthos," meaning "flower." The name was initially associated with the Greek goddess of flowers, vegetation, and fertility, known as Chloris.
In Greek mythology, Chloris was often depicted as a nymph or minor deity who was responsible for bringing forth the blooms of spring. She was said to have been transformed into the goddess Flora by the Romans, who revered her as the embodiment of all blossoming plants and greenery.
Anthea was a popular name among the ancient Greeks and was often used as a poetic reference to the beauty and fragrance of flowers. The name appears in various literary works from the classical period, including the plays of Euripides and the poems of Pindar.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Anthea can be found in the ancient Greek novel "An Ephesian Tale" by Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. The protagonist of the story is a young woman named Anthea, who endures various trials and tribulations before being reunited with her husband.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Anthea. One of the most famous was Anthea, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who lived in the 13th century. Another prominent figure was Anthea Innes, a British artist and illustrator born in 1918, renowned for her depictions of children's stories and fairy tales.
Other notable Antheas include Anthea Bell, an English writer and translator born in 1936, best known for her translations of the Asterix comic books; Anthea Askey, a British actress born in 1933, who appeared in numerous television shows and films; and Anthea Turner, a British television presenter and personality born in 1960, known for hosting popular shows like "Blue Peter" and "GMTV."
In Greek mythology, the name Anthea was sometimes associated with the goddess Aphrodite, who was often depicted surrounded by flowers and greenery. This connection further reinforced the name's symbolic link to beauty, fertility, and the natural world.
People
Anthea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anthea 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
Anthea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anthea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 758 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anthea 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 452,183 US residents.
Is Anthea a common name?
We classify Anthea as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 830 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anthea most popular?
The single biggest year for Anthea was 1990, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anthea is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anthea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,209 people with the name Anthea, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,842 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 Anthea 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 Anthea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anthea appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,210 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Anthea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anthea is White at 51.9%. The next largest groups are Black (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Anthea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anthea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.9% (627 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 Anthea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anthea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anthea 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 Anthea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anthea 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 Anthea 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 have the name Anthea?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Anthea on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.