Anja
Anja was given to 35 girls in 2025, #4,074 among girls’ names; 2,797 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,740 Americans named Anja and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 13 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Anja by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Anja mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Anja is “a female given name”
From Russian А́ня (Ánja).
/ˈɑnjɑ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Anja?
#4,074 among girls’ names, 2025
Anja fell from #2,475 in 2015 to #4,074 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 40.9 to 21.8 per million.
122 babies in 2006, the peak
Anja peaked in 2006, when 122 girls were given it, #1,709 among girls’ names. The 35 births of 2025 are 29% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #4,074 | 21.8 |
| 2024 | 48 | #3,283 | 29.6 |
| 2023 | 51 | #3,187 | 31.8 |
| 2022 | 50 | #3,219 | 30.5 |
| 2021 | 46 | #3,393 | 28.0 |
| 2020 | 53 | #3,022 | 32.8 |
| 2019 | 57 | #2,892 | 34.0 |
| 2018 | 45 | #3,440 | 26.5 |
| 2017 | 64 | #2,692 | 37.1 |
| 2016 | 72 | #2,503 | 40.6 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 73 | #2,475 | 40.9 |
| 2014 | 49 | #3,275 | 27.4 |
| 2013 | 62 | #2,772 | 35.3 |
| 2012 | 87 | #2,161 | 49.4 |
| 2011 | 81 | #2,302 | 46.0 |
| 2010 | 84 | #2,274 | 47.3 |
| 2009 | 80 | #2,399 | 43.5 |
| 2008 | 73 | #2,557 | 38.6 |
| 2007 | 99 | #2,060 | 51.5 |
| 2006 | 122 | #1,709 | 64.2 |
| 2005 | 84 | #2,182 | 45.5 |
| 2004 | 87 | #2,087 | 47.4 |
| 2003 | 80 | #2,167 | 43.8 |
| 2002 | 109 | #1,683 | 60.7 |
| 2001 | 72 | #2,237 | 40.0 |
| 2000 | 66 | #2,332 | 36.3 |
| 1999 | 61 | #2,403 | 34.4 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,930 | 24.9 |
| 1997 | 30 | #3,717 | 17.2 |
| 1996 | 55 | #2,370 | 31.4 |
| 1995 | 27 | #3,881 | 15.4 |
| 1994 | 39 | #2,986 | 21.8 |
| 1993 | 21 | #4,674 | 11.6 |
| 1992 | 39 | #2,974 | 21.2 |
| 1991 | 40 | #2,884 | 21.3 |
| 1990 | 44 | #2,642 | 23.2 |
| 1989 | 32 | #3,252 | 17.4 |
| 1988 | 26 | #3,585 | 14.6 |
| 1987 | 20 | #4,129 | 11.5 |
| 1986 | 20 | #4,036 | 11.7 |
| 1985 | 25 | #3,424 | 14.5 |
| 1984 | 19 | #3,999 | 11.3 |
| 1983 | 20 | #3,818 | 12.0 |
| 1982 | 21 | #3,785 | 12.4 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,355 | 10.2 |
| 1980 | 16 | #4,521 | 9.6 |
| 1979 | 14 | #4,854 | 8.7 |
| 1978 | 17 | #4,085 | 11.1 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,671 | 9.1 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,367 | 9.6 |
| 1975 | 16 | #3,957 | 11.0 |
| 1974 | 19 | #3,432 | 12.9 |
| 1973 | 12 | #4,589 | 8.2 |
| 1972 | 23 | #2,906 | 15.1 |
| 1971 | 39 | #2,109 | 23.4 |
| 1970 | 27 | #2,651 | 15.4 |
| 1969 | 23 | #2,770 | 13.6 |
| 1968 | 29 | #2,249 | 17.7 |
| 1967 | 26 | #2,380 | 15.7 |
| 1966 | 20 | #2,755 | 11.8 |
| 1965 | 41 | #1,769 | 23.2 |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,107 | 5.8 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,309 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Anja a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Anja has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 63 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Anja: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Anja, and how old are they?
2,740 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,797 Americans ever recorded as Anja. The median Anja alive today is 21 years old; half are between 13 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 4,102 people named Anja (4,080 women and girls, 22 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,484 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 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 | 16 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 323 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 453 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,250 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 701 |
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 Anja born?
The states with the most babies named Anja are California, Minnesota and Illinois, with 58% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 250 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Minnesota | 165 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Illinois | 55 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Washington | 55 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New York | 53 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Colorado | 41 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Wisconsin | 41 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 40 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 34 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Texas | 27 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Anja is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Anja is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1962 it was given 3.0 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 girls’ 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 Anja 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 5,517 babies since 1880, Anja is the most given (51% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 58 babies (60%), 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 Anja
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 Anja and names like it
- Compare Anja and AnijahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAnja peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Anja since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Anja: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Anja.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Anja alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.