Anila
Feminine · “wind”
Anila is common in two countries that have nothing to do with each other. In India it is a Sanskrit word for wind, old enough to name a Vedic deity; in Albania it is one of the standard women's names of the twentieth century, from an entirely separate line. American birth records carry both, and the spelling gives no way to tell them apart.
How old is the name Anila?
Anila first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Anila alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 600 people named Anila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anila most popular?
Anila peaked in 2010, reaching #4860 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 862 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From an to Anila
The story of Anila
Anila the Sanskrit word appears in the earliest Indian texts and survives in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati as a personal name, most often feminine in modern use even though the deity is male. It traveled to Britain, East Africa and North America with Indian migration in the twentieth century. Albanian Anila belongs to a different history: after the Second World War Albania saw a deliberate move away from Ottoman-era religious names towards short, vowel-rich, secular ones, and Anila, Elona, Mirela and Blerta belong to that generation. Albanian emigration in the 1990s brought the name to Italy, Greece and the United States. The two Anilas now share American classrooms without sharing an ancestor.
Meaningscholars disagree
wind, air
The Sanskrit reading is settled on its own terms: anila means wind or air, from the root an, 'to breathe', and Anila is a name of the wind god in Vedic and later Hindu texts, one of the eight Vasus. The feminine given name is formed from the same word. The Albanian name is a different matter — it is a modern formation, widely used since the mid-twentieth century, and its own etymology is not established. Both are real; which one a given Anila carries depends on her family, not on the letters.
How the name formed
- an
- anila
- Anila
Related forms: Anila · Anila · Anila · Anila
Pronouncing Anila
uh-NEE-lah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, ending open. Some Indian families say AH-nih-lah with front stress, closer to the Sanskrit; the Albanian saying puts the stress in the middle. English speakers usually reach the middle-stress version without help.
Nicknames for Anila
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 200929 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4860reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −4.5%21 in 2025, from 22
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.
Anila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anila in Hindi — same name
- Anila in Albanian — same name
- Anila in Sanskrit — same name
- Anila in Italian — same name
Anilas among us
people named Anila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Anila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anila
- #5722
- Anila on the 2025 chart
- #644
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anila went to 21 girls in 2025, but Anyla, Anylah and Aniylah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 334, which makes it the 644th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,078 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,812 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Anila 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 Khanh test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Khanh climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Khanh's path sketches the road Anila is walking now.
Anila 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
Anila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is spelled the same in every language that uses it, which is unusual.
- The Sanskrit meaning is one word long and easy to explain.
- It reads as familiar to speakers of Hindi, Albanian, Italian and English without belonging to any one of them exclusively.
- Two stress patterns are in genuine use, and the spelling settles neither.
- It sits very close to Aneela, Anela and Anaya in sound, so mishearings are routine.
- Having two unrelated origins means the meaning question always needs a qualifier.
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What they receive
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Anila
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Anila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anila?
- Anila is one of 6 recorded spellings. Anyla is the more common one — 131 births in 2025 against 21 for Anila.
- How popular is the name Anila in 2025?
- Anila ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anila?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Anila — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anila with classmates?
- Anila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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