Athanasia
Feminine · “immortality”
In Greece the day that matters is not your birthday but your name day, the feast of the saint you were named for, and it is celebrated with an open house rather than an invitation. Athanasia shares hers with Athanasios on the eighteenth of January, which makes it one of the busiest name days in the calendar.
How old is the name Athanasia?
Athanasia first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Athanasia alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 500 people named Athanasia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Athanasia most popular?
Athanasia peaked in 1974, reaching #3695 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 7,222 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Athanasia appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From athanatos to Athanasia
The story of Athanasia
The masculine Athanasios belonged to the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria who spent his career arguing, and being exiled for arguing, about the nature of Christ. He was driven from his see five times and returned five times, and the Greek church has kept his day ever since. Because Greek naming runs by rule — a first son takes his paternal grandfather's name, a first daughter her paternal grandmother's — a name attached to a major feast repeats down families for centuries rather than moving with fashion. That is why Athanasia is still ordinary in Greece and why the diminutives are so worn in: Nasia, Sia, Tasia, Soula, each one a different depth of familiarity.
Meaning
immortality
Greek athanasia, immortality: thanatos is death, and the a in front cancels it. The name is the abstract noun itself rather than an adjective, which is unusual — most Greek names describe a person, and this one names a condition.
How the name formed
- athanatos
- athanasia
- Athanasia
Related forms: Athanasia · Athanasios · Afanasia · Atanasia
Pronouncing Athanasia
ath-uh-NAY-zhuh
The American saying, four syllables with the stress on the third. The Greek is ah-thah-nah-SEE-ah, five syllables with the weight near the end and a full vowel in every one of them.
Nicknames for Athanasia
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 197517 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3695reached in 1974
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
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.
Athanasia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Athanasia in Greek — same name
- Athanasios in Greek — related form
- Afanasia in Russian — related form
- Atanasia in Romanian — same name
Athanasias among us
people named Athanasia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Athanasia
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 Jacqulynn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Athanasia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacqulynn climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacqulynn's path sketches the road Athanasia is walking now.
Athanasia 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
Athanasia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Athanasia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Greek meaning with nothing guessed about it.
- Three settled short forms, all of which are used in Greece rather than invented here.
- It has a feast day, which gives a family a fixed date to keep.
- Five syllables and a th in the middle: it will be spelled out and repeated for life.
- The Greek and American sayings differ in length, stress and vowel, so relatives may not agree.
- It is read as a variant of Anastasia, which is a different name from a different root.
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What they receive
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Athanasia
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Athanasias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Athanasia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Athanasia in 2025?
- Athanasia ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Athanasia?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Athanasia — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Athanasia with classmates?
- Athanasia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Athanasia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Athanasia? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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