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Anja

#4,074 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Anya

Anja has been given to 2,797 babies in the U.S. since 1962. In 2025 it ranked #4,074 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2006, with 122 recorded.

Babies named Anja, 2025

1 in 94,700

Anja over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Anja: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Anya

Russian

What Anja means

Anja is a form of Anya.

Origin, language, and formation

Anja is used in Danish, Faroese, Finnish, German, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Russian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Anya.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Anja is pronounced /ˈɑnjɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,797 girls were recorded with the name Anja between 1962 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 122 in 2006; its best national rank was #1,683 in 2002.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,022 in 2020 to #4,074 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,475 in 2015 to #4,074 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Anja?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 94,700
35 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 45,900
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,074
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
65,655 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Anja sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 65,655 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Anja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Anjas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Anja was born before 2005 — so the typical Anja is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
31.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
63.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,797
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 31.2% of all recorded uses (872).

Is Anja 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
−791
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,052
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,599
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.48×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
28.7%
Peak was 2006 (122)
Years since peak
19
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,683
2002

Spellings of Anja

Anja is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 21.2% against Anja's 0.06%.

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 Anja is used

Across 2016–2025, Anja was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 4,348 girls, against 1 in 41,356 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

023 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 4,348
  2. 2Washington1 in 16,667
  3. 3Colorado1 in 33,333
  4. 4New York1 in 33,333
  5. 5California1 in 50,000
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 50,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Michigan1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.

Anja around the world

Where Anja 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
    1996–2025
    #4,867
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1990–2018
    #680
    in 2018
  • France
    1966–2025
    #5,508
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #302
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–2024
    #2,463
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1962–2013
    #818
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Anja

People whose public names include Anja, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Anja in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Anja. Linked forms have their own page here.

AnaAnnaAnyaHanaAniyaGannaAnnettAnaïs

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Anja by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,074
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,052
Best rank ever
#1,683
2002
Peak year
2006
122 that year
First recorded
1962
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,797
Count in 2025
35

Names similar to Anja

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

AnjaliAnjelaAnjanaTanjaAnjelicaAnjelAnjuAnjaniAnjolieTonjaAnjuliSonjaAnjiAnjanetteBrynjaAnjoliAnjelinaLatonjaAnjelikaAnjeliAnjieAnjaleeSanjaDonja

Names with a curve like Anja

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Anja, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MaleaNadyaVeronikaAnessaTalyaAllanaMalenaMadelinSamiaRianRiaKalena

Sibling names for Anja

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 Anja

Top names of 2006, Anja's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2002Girls' names starting with AAnna & Hannah Variations & NicknamesDanish Girl NamesShort German Girl NamesShort Girl NamesUncommon Finnish Girl Names