Humanverse

Ann vs Annika

American parents have registered 471,625 Anns since 1880, against 19,594 Annikas. But in 2025 it was Annika that was commoner, 254 babies to 225.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Ann Annika

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

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Ann for 120 years and Annika for 26 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Ann Annika
Total US births 471,62519,594
Most in one year 9,0681,089
Babies in 2025 225254
Estimated living today 257,00019,000
Median age today 6619
Peak year 19572003
Best rank 44th girls285th girls
Rank in 2025 1,076th995th
First recorded 18801961
Girls / boys 470,261 / 1,36419,594 / 0

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 Anns alive today are over 66; half the Annikas are over 19. That is 47 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.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Ann Annika
Norway 12,8321,268
Ireland 13,00420
England and Wales 879896
Scotland 1,44154
France 59080
Belgium 98115

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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