Anaiah
Feminine · Hebrew roots · “Yahweh has answered”
Anaiah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,445 girls against 18 boys since 1880.
Anaiah is a name lifted straight from the Hebrew scriptures — it appears in the book of Nehemiah, among the men who stood beside Ezra as the law was read aloud. In English it has settled into three easy syllables that rhyme with the endings of Isaiah and Nehemiah, the same -aiah that has carried biblical names into American classrooms for generations. Its American story is short and still being written, mostly in the last few decades and mostly for girls.
How old is the name Anaiah?
Anaiah first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Anaiah is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,400 people named Anaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anaiah most popular?
Anaiah peaked in 2025, reaching #853 nationally. Today it ranks #853, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ʿAnayah (Hebrew) to Anaiah
The story of Anaiah
The name is Hebrew, עֲנָיָה, and in the Hebrew Bible it belongs to men: an Anaiah stands with Ezra during the public reading of the law in Nehemiah 8, and the name recurs in the list of those who sealed the covenant in Nehemiah 10. From there it sat quietly in the text for centuries, never becoming a mainstream English given name the way Isaiah, Josiah and Nehemiah did. Its arrival in American use is recent, and here it turns up in girls' records rather than boys' — part of a wider pattern in which biblical names ending in -iah and -aiah have been read as feminine in English. Florida, California and Texas account for much of that use.
Meaning
Yahweh has answered
From the Hebrew root ʿanah, 'to answer', joined to a shortened form of the divine name — the same pattern behind Isaiah and Jeremiah.
How the name formed
- ʿAnayahHebrew
- AnaiahEnglish Bible
Related forms: עֲנָיָה (Anayah) · Anaya · Aniyah
Pronouncing Anaiah
uh-NAY-uh
Some families say uh-NIE-uh, and the Hebrew is closer to ah-nah-YAH with the stress at the end. All three are in real use, so expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Anaiah
High
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
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 2025318 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #853reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +10.0%318 in 2025, from 289
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.
Anaiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- עֲנָיָה (Anayah) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Anaya in English — spelling variant
- Aniyah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Anaiahs among us
people named Anaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,054 born in 2025 was named Anaiah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anaiah
- #853
- Anaiah on the 2025 chart
- #171
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anaiah went to 318 girls in 2025, but Anaya, Anayah and Anaia and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 12 spellings went to 1,874, which makes it the 171st most-given girls’ name of the year — 682 places above the chart.
and 4 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 858 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,054 for Anaiah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Michal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anaiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Michal climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Michal's path sketches the road Anaiah is walking now.
Anaiah is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Anaiah is headed
Anaiah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 47% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Anaiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anaiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented biblical name, appearing twice in the book of Nehemiah — a long paper trail rather than a recent coinage.
- The -aiah ending is already familiar to American ears from Isaiah and Josiah, so the shape reads as a name immediately.
- Short forms are ready-made: Ana, Annie, Nia — each of which also works as a full name.
- Rare enough in American use that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- It sits in a crowded field of similar spellings — Anaya, Aniyah, Anaiya, Anaia — so expect to spell it out, and expect other people's versions to arrive on forms and name tags.
- There is no single settled pronunciation. uh-NAY-uh and uh-NIE-uh both circulate, and the Hebrew stress falls elsewhere again.
- In the Hebrew Bible the name belonged to men, while American records show it almost entirely for girls. That gap rarely causes trouble day to day, but someone who knows the text may notice it.
- Its American rise is recent and still climbing, so the name reads as new here rather than inherited — even though the source is ancient.
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Anaiah
Feminine · Hebrew roots · #853 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anaiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Anaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anaiah?
- Anaiah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Anaya is the more common one — 911 births in 2025 against 318 for Anaiah.
- How popular is the name Anaiah in 2025?
- Anaiah ranks #853 among US girl names in 2025, with 318 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anaiah?
- About 1 in every 5,054 US girls born in 2025 was named Anaiah — 318 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anaiah with classmates?
- Anaiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anaiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Indigo#853 · Paula#853 · Kelly#851 · Chelsea#851 · Nala#856 · Jamie#857 · Darcy#857 · Kendra#849
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anaiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anaiah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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