Anniston
Feminine · “Annie's town”
Anniston is an Alabama city named for one woman — Annie Tyler, whose husband and his partner built the town around their ironworks and called it Annie's Town.
How old is the name Anniston?
Anniston first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Anniston is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,600 people named Anniston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anniston most popular?
Anniston peaked in 2014, reaching #898 nationally. Today it ranks #1525, 627 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Anniston appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From channah to Anniston
The story of Anniston
Samuel Noble and Daniel Tyler built a blast furnace in Alabama after the Civil War and laid out a town around it, naming it for Tyler's daughter-in-law Annie. The surname route to the given name is different: an American actress of the name became widely known from 1994, and Anniston appears in the American registers from the mid-1990s.
Meaning
Annie's town
From Annie plus town, contracted. The Annie is Anne, from the Hebrew channah, 'grace' or 'favor'. Anniston, Alabama, was founded as a company town in 1872 and named for Annie Scott Tyler, wife of one of the founders; the name is documented and undisputed.
How the name formed
- channah
- Anne
- Annie's Town
- Anniston
Related forms: Aniston · Annistyn
Pronouncing Anniston
AN-is-tun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Anniston and Aniston are said identically.
Nicknames for Anniston
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
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 2014302 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #898reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- −14.7%139 in 2025, from 163
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.
Anniston in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aniston in English — spelling variant
- Annistyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, Tennessee, Texas.
Annistons among us
people named Anniston are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 11,563 born in 2025 was named Anniston
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anniston
- #1525
- Anniston on the 2025 chart
- #766
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anniston went to 139 girls in 2025, but Aniston is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 194, which makes it the 766th most-given girls’ name of the year — 759 places above the chart.
- Anniston139
- Aniston55
About 1 girl in 8,285 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,563 for Anniston 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 Ilah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anniston's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ilah climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ilah's path sketches the road Anniston is walking now.
Anniston 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 Anniston is headed
Anniston should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Anniston beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anniston in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Its origin is unusually well documented — a real town, a real woman, a real year.
- Annie is available as a short form with an enormous record.
- Three syllables with a front stress, which holds up against a short surname.
- One living actress dominates the association.
- Aniston with one n is the commoner spelling of the surname.
- It is very new as a given name and has little record behind it.
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What they receive
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Anniston
Feminine · #1525 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Annistons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,600 people named Anniston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anniston?
- Anniston is the most-used spelling in US records — 139 of the 194 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Aniston.
- How popular is the name Anniston in 2025?
- Anniston ranks #1525 among US girl names in 2025, with 139 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anniston?
- About 1 in every 11,563 US girls born in 2025 was named Anniston — 139 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anniston with classmates?
- Anniston will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anniston
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Blessyn#1525 · Symphony#1525 · Eloisa#1525 · Yuri#1525 · Dalila#1525 · Emmalynn#1525 · Brenda#1525 · Nour#1525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anniston? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anniston and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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