The story in the numbers

358,540 girls have been named Annie in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1922, with 7,476 births — 0.62% of all girls recorded that year.

It is rising: its share of births is at least one and a half times what it was ten years ago (rank 313 → 191).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1928, and the 1920s alone account for 19%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 68 of them in the top 100 and 5 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,927 boys have also been given it, 0.53% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Annie

17,027

23,122

27,748

52,301

69,468

48,946

38,714

23,682

9,651

5,417

8,262

8,611

8,856

9,866

6,869

In 1922, its biggest year

Annie was the 30th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1922 were Mary, Dorothy, Helen, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1922.

Names that rose and fell with Annie

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.