Girls' name · peaked in 1958
Anita name popularity since 1925
193,211 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Anita. Half of them were born in 1957 or earlier, so the typical Anita is about 69 years old in 2026. Anita peaked in 1958 as the #82 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.
Key facts
- US babies since 1925
- 193,211
- Named Anita, 1925–2025
- In 2025
- Not top 1,000
- #1,342 for girls in 2025
- Girls / boys
- 99.7% girls
- 192,565 girls · 646 boys
- Most popular in
- New Mexico
- 1.71× its national share
Peak year is the year Anita made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.
Anita births per year, 1925–2025
The biggest year by count was 1957. Measured as a share of all babies, Anita peaked in 1958.
- Steepest fall: Between 1974 and 1979, Anita's share of baby girls fell by 46%, from 1 in 758 to 1 in 1,410.
Shaded on the chart. This compares Anita's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Anita.
Decade by decade
Babies named Anita in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).
| Decade | Girls | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925–29 | 8,712 | 32 | – |
| 1930s | 22,224 | 111 | #119 |
| 1940s | 32,531 | 115 | #100 |
| 1950s | 47,588 | 110 | #94 |
| 1960s | 44,416 | 140 | #94 |
| 1970s | 18,834 | 81 | #157 |
| 1980s | 8,594 | 51 | #323 |
| 1990s | 4,571 | 6 | #573 |
| 2000s | 2,471 | 0 | #1,067 |
| 2010s | 1,695 | 0 | #1,521 |
| 2020–25 | 929 | 0 | #1,342 |
Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.
Generation fingerprint
46.7% of babies named Anita from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Baby Boom years (1946–1964). The full split by generation:
Where Anita is most popular
The index compares Anita's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Anita.
| State | Index | Babies |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | 1.71× | 1,817 |
| District of Columbia | 1.60× | 1,414 |
| Maine | 1.59× | 1,302 |
| West Virginia | 1.57× | 2,650 |
| Oklahoma | 1.52× | 3,797 |
Other spellings
Spellings that sound like Anita and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.
| Spelling | Girls | Peak year |
|---|---|---|
| Anita (this page) | 192,565 | 1958 |
| Annita | 1,329 | 1941 |
Names with a similar story
Of the other 499 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Anita's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Anita.
Names from the same era
Other common names that peaked within two years of Anita (1958).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data