Humanverse

Anna vs Annalyn

American parents have registered 917,615 Annas since 1880, against 1,368 Annalyns. Anna is still ahead, with 2,521 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Anna against Annalyn, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Anna Annalyn

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

Anna 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 2017, when Anna had 4,582 and Annalyn had 75.

Side by side

  Anna Annalyn
Total US births 917,6151,368
Most in one year 15,69775
Babies in 2025 2,52137
Estimated living today 439,0001,400
Median age today 3312
Peak year 19182014
Best rank 10th girls2,412th girls
Rank in 2025 107th3,903rd
First recorded 18801972
Girls / boys 914,859 / 2,7561,368 / 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 Annas alive today are over 33; half the Annalyns are over 12. That is 21 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: Anna and Annalyn.