Anneka
Feminine · “favor”
The -ke ending on Anneka is Dutch, and it is one of the most productive diminutives in that language: Anneke, Marieke, Janneke, Mieke. Written with a k and an a it looks Scandinavian instead, which is the small confusion at the center of this name — three spellings, Anneka, Annika and Anneke, all doing the same job in three neighboring countries.
How old is the name Anneka?
Anneka first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Anneka alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 800 people named Anneka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anneka most popular?
Anneka peaked in 1974, reaching #3212 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 9,996 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Channah to Anneka
The story of Anneka
Dutch built a whole system of affectionate names by adding -ke or -tje to a base, and it applied it to everything: Anneke is simply little Anna, and it has been in ordinary use for centuries. Swedish and Finnish produced Annika by a different route. When those names reached the English-speaking world, the endings blurred — English has no -ke diminutive and reads the letters as part of the name rather than as a grammatical addition. Anneka is what that produces: a name that is fully Dutch in shape, fully Scandinavian in appearance, and read by Americans as neither.
Meaning
favor, grace
The meaning belongs to Anna, from the Hebrew Channah — favor or grace. The diminutive ending adds affection rather than sense. Dutch -ke and Swedish -ika are different endings doing the same work, and this spelling sits between them.
How the name formed
- Channah
- Anna
- Anneke
- Anneka
Related forms: Anneke · Annika · Anneke · Annikki
Pronouncing Anneka
AH-nuh-kuh
Three syllables, stress on the first, following the Dutch. Americans often move the weight to the middle, uh-NEK-uh, and both are heard. Dutch says the final e as a light uh, which is what the a in this spelling is standing in for.
Nicknames for Anneka
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 200641 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3212reached in 1974
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Anneka in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anneke in Dutch — same name
- Annika in Swedish — related form
- Anneke in German — same name
- Annikki in Finnish — related form
Annekas among us
people named Anneka are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Anneka
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anneka
- #13208
- Anneka on the 2025 chart
- #949
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anneka went to 6 girls in 2025, but Aneeka is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 11, which makes it the 949th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,259 places above the chart.
- Anneka6
- Aneeka5
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Anneka 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 Scotty test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anneka's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Scotty climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Scotty's path sketches the road Anneka is walking now.
Anneka 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
Anneka beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anneka in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine Dutch diminutive rather than an invented ending.
- Anne is available immediately and is a complete name in every European language.
- It is soft throughout, with no consonant cluster anywhere in it.
- The base name behind it is among the most documented in the world.
- Anneke, Annika and Annaka all compete, so the spelling has to be dictated.
- The stress placement is unsettled in American use.
- Dutch relatives will write it Anneke and read the American spelling as a small mistake.
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Anneka
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Annekas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Anneka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anneka?
- Anneka is the most-used spelling in US records — 6 of the 11 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Aneeka.
- How popular is the name Anneka in 2025?
- Anneka ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anneka?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Anneka — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anneka with classmates?
- Anneka will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anneka
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Euna#13208 · Jack#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anneka? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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