Humanverse

Annel vs Annie

American parents have registered 362,180 Annies since 1880, against 551 Annels. Annie is still ahead, with 1,690 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Annel against Annie, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Annel Annie

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

Annie 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 2004, when Annel had 31 and Annie had 817.

Side by side

  Annel Annie
Total US births 551362,180
Most in one year 317,513
Babies in 2025 51,690
Estimated living today 540112,000
Median age today 2864
Peak year 20041922
Best rank 4,387th girls30th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd182nd
First recorded 19641880
Girls / boys 551 / 0360,253 / 1,927

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 Annies alive today are over 64; half the Annels are over 28. That is 36 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: Annel and Annie.