An
Masculine · “peace”
An is given to both — 1,126 boys and 1,393 girls since 1880. See An as a girl nameSee other names given to both
An is the Vietnamese word for peace and safety, and the character it is written with shows a woman under a roof — a house with someone in it is a settled house.
How old is the name An?
An first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical An alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,100 people named An are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name An most popular?
An peaked in 1985, reaching #1975 nationally. Today it ranks #4139, 2,164 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
An appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of An
Ours, offered as ours. The character for an is one of the more debated in Chinese writing: it puts a woman under a roof, and interpretations of why have varied enormously across the centuries and are still argued. What is not argued is what it means — peace, safety, settledness — and it appears everywhere, in Xi'an, in the word for security, in the phrase for a safe journey. Vietnamese uses it as a complete personal name for both sexes.
Meaning
peace, safety
From Sino-Vietnamese an, the same word as Chinese ān; the character combines the elements for a roof and a woman. It appears in an enormous number of compounds about security and calm.
Pronouncing An
AHN
One syllable with a tone in Vietnamese that English does not carry.
Nicknames for An
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 199732 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1975reached in 1985
- Change vs 2024
- +4.2%25 in 2025, from 24
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
An in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- An in Vietnamese — same name
- 安 in Chinese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Ans among us
people named An are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 68,323 born in 2025 was named An
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kenard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. An's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenard climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenard's path sketches the road An is walking now.
An sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where An is headed
An should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
An beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to An in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely good sense and a vivid written character.
- Two letters and one syllable — as short as a name can be.
- Used across Vietnamese and Chinese naming, so it has an enormous community.
- English speakers read it as the indefinite article, which is unavoidable.
- Forms and systems will reject a two-letter name.
- It is used for both sexes in Vietnamese, so forms may guess wrong.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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An
Masculine · #4139 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named An are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name An in 2025?
- An ranks #4139 among US boy names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name An?
- About 1 in every 68,323 US boys born in 2025 was named An — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name An with classmates?
- An will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside An
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mose#4139 · Lucious#4139 · Karsten#4139 · Nikita#4139 · Hasani#4139 · Jomar#4139 · Fionn#4139 · Earnest#4139
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles An? See the current top 100.
Choosing between An and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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