Anil
Masculine · “Wind”
Anil is the Sanskrit word for wind, and it is one of the names of the wind god. It is also, by a completely separate route, the source of the English word aniline, because the same three letters ended up attached to the indigo plant and then to the dyes made from it.
How old is the name Anil?
Anil first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Anil alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 1,100 people named Anil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anil most popular?
Anil peaked in 1974, reaching #1370 nationally. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From anila to Anil
The story of Anil
The other anil is a plant. Sanskrit nila means dark blue, and the indigo plant took a name built on it; Arabic borrowed it as an-nil with the article attached, Portuguese took it from Arabic as anil, and English has had the word for the dye since the sixteenth century. When chemists in the nineteenth century began making synthetic dyes and needed a name for the compound they had extracted, they called it aniline after that word, and the whole modern chemical industry effectively began with it. So a word for dark blue in one Indian language named a plant, a trade good, a chemical and an industry, and the name in this entry is a different word that happens to match it.
Meaning
Wind
Sanskrit anila, wind or air, and a name of Vayu, the wind deity, who is one of the oldest gods in the tradition and appears in the earliest hymns. The word is built on a root about breathing, which is the same connection Latin makes between anima and breath and Greek between psyche and breath.
How the name formed
- anila
- Anil
Related forms: Anil · Anil · Anil
Pronouncing Anil
uh-NEEL
Two syllables with the stress at the back. Hindi gives the first vowel more value than English does, and the l at the end is lighter than the English one; neither difference causes any difficulty.
Nicknames for Anil
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 198946 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1370reached in 1974
- Change vs 2019
- −22.2%7 in 2024, from 9
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.
Anil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anil in Hindi — same name
- Anil in Marathi — same name
- Anil in Nepali — same name
Anils among us
people named Anil are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Anil sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, clear and easy to say, with a meaning that fits in one word.
- It is a real and current name across northern India and Nepal.
- Every sound in it is available to an English speaker without training.
- It will be heard as Neil, which is a different name from a different language.
- Outside South Asian communities the name will need its origin explained.
- It is spelled identically to an English word for a dye, which chemists will notice.
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Anil
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Anils 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 Anil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anil in 2025?
- Anil is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Anil with classmates?
- Anil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anil? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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