Humanverse

Ann vs Anner

American parents have registered 471,625 Anns since 1880, against 1,096 Anners. Ann is still ahead, with 225 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ann against Anner, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ann Anner

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Ann has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1880, when Ann had 131 and Anner had 9.

Side by side

  Ann Anner
Total US births 471,6251,096
Most in one year 9,06832
Babies in 2025 22511
Estimated living today 257,000220
Median age today 6675
Peak year 19571920
Best rank 44th girls1,407th girls
Rank in 2025 1,076thunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 470,261 / 1,3641,037 / 59

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Anners alive today are over 75; half the Anns are over 66. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Ann and Anner.