Humanverse

Anne vs Anniston

American parents have registered 325,954 Annes since 1880, against 3,660 Annistons. Anne is still ahead, with 472 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Anne against Anniston, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Anne Anniston

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

Anne 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 2014, when Anne had 559 and Anniston had 302.

Side by side

  Anne Anniston
Total US births 325,9543,660
Most in one year 5,755302
Babies in 2025 472139
Estimated living today 189,0003,600
Median age today 619
Peak year 19592014
Best rank 82nd girls898th girls
Rank in 2025 619th1,525th
First recorded 18801996
Girls / boys 325,128 / 8263,660 / 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 Annes alive today are over 61; half the Annistons are over 9. That is 52 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: Anne and Anniston.