Anil
Anil was last recorded in 2024, when 7 babies were given it; 1,160 Americans have been recorded with it between 1959 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,080 Americans named Anil and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 30 and 48.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Anil by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Anil mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Anil is “a male given name from the Indo-Aryan languages [in turn from Sanskrit] or from the Dravidian languages [in turn from Sanskrit]; variant form Aneel.” Its etymology gives the sense “Hindu god of the wind” (अनिल).
Also “a male given name from Turkish.”
Borrowed from Hindi अनिल (anil), Marathi अनिल (anil), Kannada ಅನಿಲ್ (anil), Tamil அனில் (aṉil), Malayalam അനിൽ (anil), Bengali অনিল (onil), Nepali अनिल (anil), Urdu اَنِیل (anīl), or Sinhalese අනිල් (anil), from Sanskrit अनिल (anila, “Hindu god of the wind”).
/əˈnɪl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Anil?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #9,967, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
46 babies in 1989, the peak
Anil peaked in 1989, when 46 boys were given it, #1,676 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7 | #9,967 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,248 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 6 | #10,848 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 5 | #12,379 | 2.7 |
| 2014 | 5 | #12,222 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 7 | #9,708 | 3.7 |
| 2012 | 6 | #10,868 | 3.2 |
| 2011 | 7 | #9,662 | 3.7 |
| 2010 | 10 | #7,614 | 5.2 |
| 2009 | 10 | #7,716 | 5.0 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 12 | #6,780 | 5.9 |
| 2007 | 6 | #11,008 | 2.9 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,451 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,131 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 9 | #7,559 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 12 | #5,889 | 6.1 |
| 2002 | 16 | #4,710 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 20 | #3,975 | 10.3 |
| 2000 | 28 | #3,076 | 14.3 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,706 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 26 | #3,017 | 13.6 |
| 1997 | 27 | #2,822 | 14.3 |
| 1996 | 19 | #3,546 | 10.0 |
| 1995 | 22 | #3,098 | 11.6 |
| 1994 | 22 | #3,104 | 11.4 |
| 1993 | 28 | #2,575 | 14.3 |
| 1992 | 25 | #2,743 | 12.5 |
| 1991 | 34 | #2,138 | 16.8 |
| 1990 | 37 | #2,009 | 18.0 |
| 1989 | 46 | #1,676 | 23.0 |
| 1988 | 25 | #2,365 | 13.1 |
| 1987 | 41 | #1,655 | 22.0 |
| 1986 | 24 | #2,290 | 13.0 |
| 1985 | 31 | #1,867 | 16.8 |
| 1984 | 35 | #1,655 | 19.4 |
| 1983 | 37 | #1,595 | 20.6 |
| 1982 | 30 | #1,850 | 16.5 |
| 1981 | 32 | #1,766 | 17.9 |
| 1980 | 33 | #1,729 | 18.5 |
| 1979 | 42 | #1,435 | 24.4 |
| 1978 | 33 | #1,653 | 20.1 |
| 1977 | 27 | #1,860 | 16.4 |
| 1976 | 26 | #1,876 | 16.6 |
| 1975 | 39 | #1,409 | 25.0 |
| 1974 | 39 | #1,370 | 24.8 |
| 1973 | 21 | #1,983 | 13.5 |
| 1972 | 18 | #2,159 | 11.1 |
| 1971 | 17 | #2,283 | 9.6 |
| 1970 | 14 | #2,511 | 7.5 |
| 1969 | 16 | #2,131 | 8.9 |
| 1968 | 16 | #2,034 | 9.2 |
| 1967 | 16 | #1,975 | 9.2 |
| 1966 | 6 | #3,546 | 3.4 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,624 | 5.4 |
| 1963 | 9 | #2,865 | 4.4 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,652 | 2.9 |
| 1960 | 7 | #3,352 | 3.3 |
| 1959 | 9 | #2,829 | 4.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Anil a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Anil has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 58 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Anil: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Anil, and how old are they?
1,080 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 1,160 Americans ever recorded as Anil. The median Anil alive today is 39 years old; half are between 30 and 48.
The 2020 Census counted 7,485 people named Anil (74 women and girls, 7,411 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,098 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 24 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 334 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 463 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 225 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 39 |
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 Anil born?
The states with the most babies named Anil are New York, California and Illinois, with 93% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 267 | not ranked | 3.2× |
| California | 67 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 17 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Texas | 11 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Indiana | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| New Jersey | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Anil is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Anil is most over-represented in New York: since 1959 it was given 3.2 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 Anil 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 1,928 babies since 1880, Anil is the most given (60% of them). In 2025 none of their 22 babies recorded by SSA was a Anil (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Anil
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 Anil and names like it
- Compare Anil and AnielBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sAnil peaked in 1989.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Anil since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Anil: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1989The year the most babies were named Anil.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Anil alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with AMost given first.