Anita
Feminine · “favor”
Anita is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 215,165 girls against 684 boys since 1880. See Anita as a boy name
Anita is a Spanish diminutive that English adopted as a name in its own right, which is how a great many names arrive. It has been in the American record since records began, and it belongs to one of the sharpest comic novelists of the twentieth century.
How old is the name Anita?
Anita was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Anita alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 143,000 people named Anita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anita most popular?
Anita peaked in 1963, reaching #77 nationally. Today it ranks #1341, 1,264 places below that high. See the whole 1963 chart.
Anita appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Hannah to Anita
The story of Anita
Anita Loos wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as a series of magazine pieces, in the voice of a Lorelei Lee who records her own progress through a series of rich men in a diary of spectacular unreliability. The joke is entirely in the narration: Lorelei never says anything unkind and the reader assembles the truth from what she leaves out. It sold in enormous numbers, went through printing after printing, was translated widely, and Edith Wharton — who was not a generous critic — called it the great American novel. Loos had been writing film titles since her teens, wrote for the screen for decades, and produced the line about men seldom making passes at girls who wear glasses. She said later that she had written the book because the men she knew kept losing their intelligence around a particular blonde.
Meaning
favor, grace
The Spanish diminutive of Ana, from the Hebrew Hannah, which means favor or grace. In Spanish the ending is grammar rather than a separate name; English treated the whole thing as a unit and gave it to children who had no Ana behind them at all.
How the name formed
- Hannah
- Ana
- Anita
Related forms: Anita · Annetta · Aninha · Anitta
Pronouncing Anita
uh-NEE-tuh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle, which is where the Spanish ending puts it. English speakers say it the same way, which is unusual for a borrowed diminutive.
Nicknames for Anita
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19575,811 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #77reached in 1963
- Change vs 2022
- −1.8%165 in 2025, from 168
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.
Anita in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anita in Spanish — same name
- Annetta in Italian — related form
- Aninha in Portuguese — related form
- Anitta in Finnish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Anitas among us
people named Anita are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,741 born in 2025 was named Anita
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 Yvonne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anita's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Yvonne climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Yvonne's path sketches the road Anita is walking now.
Anita 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 Anita is headed
Anita should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Anita beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anita in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It reads correctly on sight in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
- Both halves detach as short forms and each is a complete name.
- The meaning is documented and simple.
- It reads as a diminutive to Spanish speakers, which some families mind and most do not.
- Anitra and Aneta will both be written for it.
- It is strongly associated with particular mid-century decades in America.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Anita to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Anita
Feminine · #1341 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anitas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 143,000 people named Anita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anita in 2025?
- Anita ranks #1341 among US girl names in 2025, with 165 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anita?
- About 1 in every 9,741 US girls born in 2025 was named Anita — 165 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anita with classmates?
- Anita will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anita
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Magdalene#1341 · Wendy#1341 · Samadhi#1341 · Livvy#1341 · Adalina#1341 · Liya#1341 · Zaliyah#1339 · Rebeca#1339
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anita? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anita and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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