Anwar
Anwar was given to 38 boys in 2025, #3,128 among boys’ names; 2,864 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,740 Americans named Anwar and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 17 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Anwar by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Anwar mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Anwar is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “most luminous” (أَنْوَر).
Also “a female given name from Arabic.”
Borrowed from Arabic أَنْوَر (ʔanwar, “most luminous”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Anwar?
#3,128 among boys’ names, 2025
Anwar fell from #2,769 in 2015 to #3,128 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 22.4 to 22.2 per million.
144 babies in 1978, the peak
Anwar peaked in 1978, when 144 boys were given it, #697 among boys’ names. The 38 births of 2025 are 26% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 38 | #3,128 | 22.2 |
| 2024 | 44 | #2,876 | 25.5 |
| 2023 | 38 | #3,180 | 22.2 |
| 2022 | 41 | #3,005 | 23.5 |
| 2021 | 25 | #4,118 | 14.3 |
| 2020 | 33 | #3,350 | 19.1 |
| 2019 | 51 | #2,555 | 28.4 |
| 2018 | 35 | #3,246 | 19.3 |
| 2017 | 32 | #3,438 | 17.3 |
| 2016 | 43 | #2,784 | 22.7 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 43 | #2,769 | 22.4 |
| 2014 | 33 | #3,305 | 17.2 |
| 2013 | 45 | #2,624 | 23.8 |
| 2012 | 35 | #3,180 | 18.5 |
| 2011 | 55 | #2,318 | 29.0 |
| 2010 | 50 | #2,469 | 26.1 |
| 2009 | 52 | #2,452 | 26.2 |
| 2008 | 44 | #2,753 | 21.6 |
| 2007 | 42 | #2,815 | 20.2 |
| 2006 | 54 | #2,312 | 26.3 |
| 2005 | 83 | #1,634 | 41.6 |
| 2004 | 48 | #2,342 | 24.2 |
| 2003 | 45 | #2,352 | 22.8 |
| 2002 | 51 | #2,088 | 26.3 |
| 2001 | 49 | #2,115 | 25.2 |
| 2000 | 47 | #2,135 | 23.9 |
| 1999 | 42 | #2,197 | 21.9 |
| 1998 | 34 | #2,506 | 17.8 |
| 1997 | 40 | #2,164 | 21.2 |
| 1996 | 46 | #1,931 | 24.3 |
| 1995 | 23 | #3,022 | 12.1 |
| 1994 | 30 | #2,505 | 15.5 |
| 1993 | 42 | #1,932 | 21.4 |
| 1992 | 34 | #2,211 | 17.0 |
| 1991 | 40 | #1,917 | 19.8 |
| 1990 | 46 | #1,725 | 22.4 |
| 1989 | 46 | #1,678 | 23.0 |
| 1988 | 47 | #1,549 | 24.6 |
| 1987 | 41 | #1,656 | 22.0 |
| 1986 | 39 | #1,645 | 21.2 |
| 1985 | 50 | #1,370 | 27.1 |
| 1984 | 86 | #950 | 47.6 |
| 1983 | 85 | #957 | 47.4 |
| 1982 | 140 | #741 | 77.2 |
| 1981 | 140 | #730 | 78.2 |
| 1980 | 61 | #1,166 | 34.2 |
| 1979 | 92 | #914 | 53.4 |
| 1978 | 144 | #697 | 87.7 |
| 1977 | 60 | #1,122 | 36.5 |
| 1976 | 51 | #1,210 | 32.5 |
| 1975 | 43 | #1,322 | 27.5 |
| 1974 | 35 | #1,472 | 22.3 |
| 1973 | 19 | #2,129 | 12.2 |
| 1972 | 23 | #1,872 | 14.2 |
| 1971 | 15 | #2,467 | 8.5 |
| 1970 | 5 | #4,758 | 2.7 |
| 1969 | 6 | #3,963 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Anwar a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,864 Americans recorded as Anwar, 4% are girls and 96% boys. In 2025 it went to 38 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Anwar: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Anwar, and how old are they?
2,740 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 2,864 Americans ever recorded as Anwar. The median Anwar alive today is 31 years old; half are between 17 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 4,874 people named Anwar (635 women and girls, 4,239 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,562 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.9 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 513 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 914 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 802 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 515 |
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 Anwar born?
The states with the most babies named Anwar are New York, Pennsylvania and California, with 54% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 281 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 172 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| California | 162 | #2,497 | 0.5× |
| Minnesota | 77 | #723 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 72 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 71 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Texas | 66 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Florida | 53 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Georgia | 53 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 35 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Anwar is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Anwar is most over-represented in New York: since 1969 it was given 1.5 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 Anwar with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Anwar
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 Anwar and names like it
- Compare Anwar and AntuanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sAnwar peaked in 1978.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Anwar since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Anwar: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Anwar.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Anwar alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with AMost given first.