Anh
Masculine · “Vietnamese anh”
Anh is given to both — 715 boys and 1,581 girls since 1880. See Anh as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Vietnamese has no neutral word for you. Addressing someone means choosing a kinship term: anh for an older brother, chi for an older sister, em for a younger sibling, bac for an uncle. Every conversation states a relationship. Anh is that word, and it is also a very common personal name, which means the name is a form of address made permanent.
How old is the name Anh?
Anh first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Anh alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 700 people named Anh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anh most popular?
Anh peaked in 1983, reaching #1534 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,709 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Anh
Vietnamese pronouns are kinship terms and the system is unavoidable. There is no way to say I or you without deciding how you stand to the person you are speaking to, and the choice encodes age, family relation, and often affection or distance. A man calls himself anh when talking to a younger woman and em when talking to an older man, so the same speaker changes pronoun from conversation to conversation. Learners find this the hardest part of the language, not because the words are difficult but because the calculation never stops. Names sit on top of that system rather than inside it: Vietnamese given names are usually meaningful words, often chosen for the sense they carry, and many of them are also common nouns. What American records lose is the tone marks and diacritics, which are not decoration in Vietnamese but part of the letter, and without them several different names collapse into one spelling.
Meaningscholars disagree
Vietnamese anh, elder brother
The syllable anh is the Vietnamese word for an elder brother and the corresponding second-person pronoun used to a man slightly older than the speaker. As a name it is usually written with a Chinese character read anh, and depending on which character is used it can mean a flower's petal, a hero, or brightness. Vietnamese is written with diacritics that American records strip, so the same spelling covers several distinct names. It peaks in 1983, with post-1975 refugee arrival.
Pronouncing Anh
ahn
One syllable. The nh at the end is a single palatal nasal, made further forward than English ng and further back than n, and English has no exact equivalent. Americans usually say ann or ahn, both of which are close enough to be understood.
Nicknames for Anh
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
- 198339 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1534reached in 1983
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%9 in 2025, from 10
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.
Anh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anh in Vietnamese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Anhs among us
people named Anh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Anh
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 Niel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Niel climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Niel's path sketches the road Anh is walking now.
Anh 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
Anh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, three letters, easy to write.
- It is used for both men and women in Vietnamese.
- It is a real word with several documented senses.
- American records strip the diacritics that distinguish it from similar names.
- The final consonant does not exist in English.
- It is very short and will often be assumed to be an initial or an abbreviation.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Anh to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Anh? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Anh
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anhs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Anh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anh in 2025?
- Anh ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anh?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Anh — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anh with classmates?
- Anh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anh and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle