Anais
Feminine · “grace”
Anais is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 9,213 girls against 118 boys since 1880.
Anaïs came into English from the far south of France and from Catalonia, where it grew out of Anna — a name so old it reaches back to the Hebrew Bible. It is a French word in the mouth even in America: three light beats with the weight thrown to the end, ah-nah-EES. Anaïs Nin, the diarist who wrote across most of the twentieth century, carried it into libraries worldwide, and Cacharel's perfume Anaïs Anaïs, named for her, carried it into shops in the late 1970s.
How old is the name Anais?
Anais first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Anais alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 9,100 people named Anais are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anais most popular?
Anais peaked in 2021, reaching #825 nationally. Today it ranks #892, 67 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ḥannah to Anais
The story of Anais
The name belongs first to Occitan and Catalan, the languages of southern France and northeastern Spain, where Anna was reshaped locally into Anaïs — with the diaeresis on the i to show that the vowels are sounded separately rather than blurred into a diphthong. It traveled north into standard French, where it has long been ordinary, and reached English-speaking countries mainly in the twentieth century. The Franco-Cuban-American writer Anaïs Nin, whose diaries were published from the 1960s onward, gave the name a literary address in the United States; the perfume launched in her honor at the end of the 1970s gave it a commercial one. American records show it arriving in the early 1970s and holding on quietly ever since, most visibly in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaningscholars disagree
grace, favor — via Anna
The mainstream reading treats Anaïs as an Occitan and Catalan form of Anna, from Hebrew Ḥannah, 'grace' or 'favor'. A second reading connects it to Anaïtis, the Greek rendering of the Persian goddess-name Anahita. The Anna line is the better-supported of the two; the Anahita link is repeated often enough to deserve mention, and neither has been closed off.
How the name formed
- Ḥannah
- Anna
- Anaïs
- Anais
Related forms: Anaïs · Anaïs · Anaís · Naïs · Anna · Anna
Pronouncing Anais
ah-nah-EES
Stress falls on the last syllable, and the final s is sounded — unusual for a French name, and the direct result of the diaeresis in Anaïs, which separates the a and the i. American speakers also produce uh-NAY-iss, especially when they meet the spelling without the diaeresis first; both are heard, and the family's own version tends to settle the matter.
Nicknames for Anais
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 2021337 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #825reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −5.7%299 in 2025, from 317
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.
Anais in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anaïs in French — spelling variant
- Anaïs in Catalan — same name
- Anaís in Spanish — spelling variant
- Naïs in Occitan — related form
- Anna in English — related form
- Anna in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Anaiss among us
people named Anais are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,375 born in 2025 was named Anais
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 Juliann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anais's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Juliann climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Juliann's path sketches the road Anais is walking now.
Anais 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 Anais is headed
Anais should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Anais beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anais in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Anais and Anaïs are both established spellings, so the diaeresis can be kept or dropped without inventing anything.
- Ana works as a ready-made short form and is understood instantly in English and Spanish alike.
- A documented line back through Anna to Hebrew Ḥannah — a family of names in continuous use for well over two thousand years.
- Native to French, Catalan and Spanish, which helps in bilingual families and across borders.
- Common enough to be recognized, uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits in American use — ah-nah-EES against uh-NAY-iss. Expect to correct it politely for years, and to hear both from teachers and doctors' offices.
- The diaeresis will disappear from most forms, logins and school rosters, so it is worth deciding early whether Anaïs or Anais is the official spelling.
- For some adults the name calls up the perfume before anything else. That association has faded steadily and rarely reaches younger ears at all.
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What they receive
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Anais
Feminine · #892 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anaiss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,100 people named Anais are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anais in 2025?
- Anais ranks #892 among US girl names in 2025, with 299 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anais?
- About 1 in every 5,375 US girls born in 2025 was named Anais — 299 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anais with classmates?
- Anais will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anais
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Violette#893 · Mariel#893 · Leanna#890 · Lilianna#890 · Naylani#895 · Liv#895 · Chandler#895 · Aviana#887
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anais? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anais and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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