Annemarie

About Annemarie

Annemarie joins Anne and Marie in a single name. Familiar in German and Danish, it keeps both halves clearly visible, giving it a different shape from shorter combinations such as Marianne. Its history includes an Olympic skiing champion, a parliamentary pioneer, and the young heroine of Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars.

Meaning and origin

Anne belongs to the Hannah family, with the Hebrew meaning “favor” or “grace.” Marie is a form of Mary, whose deeper origin remains disputed. Annemarie is therefore best understood as a combination of two established names rather than a phrase with one agreed translation.

The joined spelling appears in both German and Danish naming traditions. Anne-Marie separates the same elements with a hyphen, while Annamarie and Annamaria use Anna at the beginning. Annmarie removes the e before Marie. These small differences preserve a recognizable family resemblance while changing the written balance of the name.

History and notable bearers

Annemarie Renger became the first woman to serve as president of Germany’s Bundestag in 1972. A Social Democrat, she held the office until 1976. Her election placed a woman at the head of the federal parliament, making Annemarie part of a significant moment in German political history.

Austrian skier Annemarie Moser-Pröll carried the name into international sport. She won six overall Alpine Skiing World Cup titles: five consecutively from 1971 through 1975, followed by another in 1979. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, she won the women’s downhill gold medal. Her career connects the name particularly strongly with the mountain sports of central Europe.

A literary connection

In Number the Stars, Annemarie Johansen is a ten-year-old living in Copenhagen in 1943. Her best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish, and the story follows the danger surrounding efforts to protect Ellen and her family during the German occupation of Denmark.

The character’s ordinary school and family life sits beside the extraordinary circumstances of wartime. That contrast gives Annemarie a particularly concrete literary association: a child learning how courage works through actions, loyalty, and the adults around her, rather than a remote historical figure.

Sound and related forms

The German pronunciation is approximately AH-nuh-mah-ree, with four syllables and the main stress at the beginning. This gives more space to Anne than the English single-syllable pronunciation of that name. The final Marie remains clearly audible.

Anne, Annie, or Marie can serve as everyday shortenings drawn directly from the full name. Keeping Annemarie in full preserves its two-part rhythm; using Anne-Marie instead makes that structure explicit on the page.

American popularity

In the United States, Annemarie’s largest annual total in the published SSA series was 378 girls in 1968, when it ranked #500. By 2025, 57 girls received the spelling, placing it at #2,934. Its American usage therefore has a pronounced mid-century concentration, alongside a much longer European naming tradition.

How popular is Annemarie?

In 2025, Annemarie ranked #2,934 among girls in the United States, with 57 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1912; its largest annual count was 378 in 1968. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.