Anakin
Anakin was given to 427 boys in 2025, #648 among boys’ names; 5,892 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,840 Americans named Anakin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Anakin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Anakin mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Anakin is “a male given name.”
Coined by American filmmaker George Lucas as early as 1974 in early drafts of Star Wars, which included a character named Annikin Starkiller. First appeared in 1977 in the novel Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker.
/ˈænəkɪn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Anakin?
#648 among boys’ names, 2025
Anakin rose from #909 in 2015 to #648 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.12 to 0.25 per 1,000.
547 babies in 2023, the peak
Anakin peaked in 2023, when 547 babies were given it (541 boys, #544 among boys’ names). The 433 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 79% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 427 | #648 | 0.25 |
| 2024 | 485 | #590 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 541 | #544 | 0.32 |
| 2022 | 464 | #606 | 0.27 |
| 2021 | 431 | #640 | 0.25 |
| 2020 | 361 | #702 | 0.21 |
| 2019 | 222 | #962 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 270 | #827 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 323 | #736 | 0.17 |
| 2016 | 308 | #776 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 237 | #909 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 220 | #959 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 143 | #1,238 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 128 | #1,328 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 91 | #1,657 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 100 | #1,574 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 119 | #1,413 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 101 | #1,571 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 102 | #1,539 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 120 | #1,350 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 133 | #1,196 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 66 | #1,854 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 54 | #2,074 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 69 | #1,691 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 66 | #1,729 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 96 | #1,331 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 114 | #1,148 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 26 | #3,016 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,457 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,004 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 5 | #8,928 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Anakin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Anakin has been given almost only to boys: 50 girls in 31 years of records.
Girls and boys named Anakin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Anakin, and how old are they?
5,840 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 5,892 Americans ever recorded as Anakin. The median Anakin alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 2,756 people named Anakin (59 women and girls, 2,697 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,220 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 11 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,380 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,450 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Anakin born?
The states with the most babies named Anakin are California, Texas and Ohio, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 79 | #415 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 69 | #485 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 23 | #455 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 17 | #849 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 17 | #544 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 15 | #621 | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 14 | #491 | 1.1× |
| Kentucky | 14 | #346 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 11 | #743 | 0.5× |
| Oklahoma | 11 | #396 | 0.9× |
Where Anakin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Anakin is most over-represented in California: since 1995 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Anakin with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 6,168 babies since 1880, Anakin is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 433 of their 439 babies (99%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Anakin
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Anakin and names like it
- Compare Anakin and AnikenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAnakin peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Anakin since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Anakin.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Anakin alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.