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Anatole

#12,135 in 2025Boys' name

Sunrise

Anatole has been given to 204 babies in the U.S. since 1889. In 2025 it ranked #12,135 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 11 recorded.

Babies named Anatole, 2025

1 in 663,000

Anatole over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Anatole: meaning, origin, and history

Sunrise

Ancient Greek

What Anatole means

Anatole means “sunrise”, associated with anatolḗ.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From French Anatole, from Ancient Greek ἀνατολή (anatolḗ, “sunrise”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Anatole (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Anatole is used in English and French. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Anatole comes through French Anatole and Ancient Greek ἀνατολή.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Anatolius.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Anatole is pronounced /ˈænətoʊl/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 204 boys were recorded with the name Anatole between 1889 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 11 in 1918; its best national rank was #978 in 1889.

How common is Anatole?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#12,135
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Anatole sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Anatole. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Anatoles were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Anatole was born before 1932 — so the typical Anatole is around 93 today.

Median birth year
1932
About 93 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
27.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
86
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 27.9% of all recorded uses (57).

Is Anatole rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
45.5%
Peak was 1918 (11)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#978
1889

Spellings of Anatole

Anatole is not the most common spelling — Antone is, with 81.5% against Anatole's 2.8%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Anatole is used

Across 1910–2025, Anatole was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 241,900 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Anatole has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Anatole around the world

Where Anatole ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2009–2018
    #4,749
    in 2018
  • France
    1900–2025
    #247
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2013–2023
    #2,747
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1953–1954
    #360
    in 1954

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Anatole by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#12,135
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#978
1889
Peak year
1918
11 that year
First recorded
1889
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
204
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Anatole

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AnanthAnaniasAnatolyAnacletoAnakynAnaisAnariAnantAnavNicholeAnandaAnaelAnastasioAnaghAnanAnatoliyAnaniaCaroleAnandAnabelAnastasiosAnastacioAnayAnakin

Sibling names for Anatole

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Anatole

Top names of 1918, Anatole's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1889Boys' names starting with AElegant Boy NamesEthereal Boy Names