Anuj
Masculine · “Born after”
Anuj is a Sanskrit word before it is a name, and the word is one English has no equivalent for: it means the one born after. A whole relationship in two syllables, which English needs a phrase to say.
How old is the name Anuj?
Anuj first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Anuj alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 900 people named Anuj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anuj most popular?
Anuj peaked in 1979, reaching #2236 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Anuja to Anuj
The story of Anuj
What makes the name interesting is not the meaning but the practice behind it. Indian naming still draws directly from the Sanskrit dictionary: a parent can pick a word for dawn, for a river, for patience, for a younger brother, and give it to a child as it stands, and everyone who hears it will know what it says. English gave that up a long time ago. Our names are fossils — Philip means horse-lover and nobody hears it, Dorothy is a gift of God and nobody hears that either. A name in a language that stopped borrowing from Latin still carries its meaning the way a stone carries a fossil. A name like Anuj carries it the way a word does, which is a genuinely different thing.
Meaning
Born after — a younger brother
Sanskrit anu means after or following, and ja means born. The compound is the ordinary word for a younger brother in Hindi and several other Indian languages, and it is used as a name without any change at all. The feminine, Anuja, is the same word for a younger sister.
How the name formed
- Anuja
- Anuj
Related forms: अनुज · Anuja
Pronouncing Anuj
uh-NOOJ
Two syllables, stress at the back, ending on a soft j. English speakers often say AN-uj, with the weight at the front, which is not how it is said at home.
Nicknames for Anuj
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 200646 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2236reached in 1979
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2022, from 5
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.
Anuj in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- अनुज in Hindi — same name
- Anuja in Sanskrit — related form
Anujs among us
people named Anuj are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Anuj sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is exact, warm and still fully alive in the language it comes from.
- It is short and simple to spell, which matters for a name that will live in two countries.
- It works equally well in India and in English-speaking settings without translation or adjustment.
- American English puts the stress in the wrong place by default, and he will correct that often.
- A name that means younger brother sits oddly on an oldest child, and families do notice.
- No English word ends in the sound this one does, so the final consonant will be softened by people guessing.
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Anuj
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Anujs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Anuj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Anuj in 2025?
- Anuj is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Anuj with classmates?
- Anuj will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anuj? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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