Annamae
Feminine · “Grace”
Annamae is Anna Mae with the space closed, and the double name is one of the most characteristically American things in the whole birth record — a southern habit above all, in which two names function as one and both are said every time.
How old is the name Annamae?
Annamae first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Annamae alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 1,400 people named Annamae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Annamae most popular?
Annamae peaked in 1922, reaching #603 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 4,635 places below that high. See the whole 1922 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ḥannāh to Annamae
The story of Annamae
The double name is a genuine institution rather than an accident of paperwork: a girl christened Anna Mae was called Anna Mae by everyone for life, and the pair worked as a single unit of speech. The habit was strongest in the American South and among rural families generally, and it produced Bettie Jean, Mary Lou, Sarah Beth, Anna Mae and hundreds more. The birth records show the space closing as clerks and families wrote the pair solid. Annamae's American peak in the early 1920s sits at the height of the practice; it fell away after the Second World War as the single-first-name-plus-middle-name pattern became standard.
Meaningscholars disagree
Grace, joined to a contested Mary element
Anna is from Hebrew Ḥannāh, grace or favor, a settled reading. Mae is a spelling of May, which serves both as the month — from the Roman goddess Maia — and as a short form of Mary and Margaret. Which of those a given Mae stands for is not recoverable, and the compound has no meaning beyond the two names joined.
How the name formed
- Ḥannāh
- Anna
- Anna Mae
- Annamae
Related forms: Anna Mae · חַנָּה
Pronouncing Annamae
AN-uh-may
Three syllables, with the main stress on the first and a secondary one on the last. It is said exactly as the two names in sequence, with no pause between them.
Nicknames for Annamae
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 1925142 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #603reached in 1922
- Change vs 2023
- +41.2%24 in 2025, from 17
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.
Annamae in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anna Mae in English — same name
- חַנָּה in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida.
Annamaes among us
people named Annamae are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Annamae
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 Aletha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Annamae's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aletha climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aletha's path sketches the road Annamae is walking now.
Annamae 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
Annamae beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Annamae in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are complete, established names usable alone.
- Anna is among the most durable women's names in Europe and Mae is currently rising again.
- It is easy to say and needs no explanation.
- Written solid it looks like an error to anyone expecting Anna Mae.
- It is strongly dated to the years before 1940 in American ears.
- Forms and databases will split it, join it and capitalize it inconsistently.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Annamae
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Annamaes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Annamae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Annamae in 2025?
- Annamae ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Annamae?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Annamae — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Annamae with classmates?
- Annamae will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Annamae
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Annamae? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Annamae and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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