Aniela
A feminine form of the Polish name meaning "gracious, merciful".
Name Census estimates that about 950 living Americans carry the first name Aniela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aniela today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aniela births was 2010 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aniela. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Aniela with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
950
~ 1 in 360,794 Americans
Peak year
2010
52 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,113
Tracked since 1913
Census
Aniela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,190 people with the first name Aniela, which placed it at #10,971 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,971
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,190 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aniela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aniela is White at 71.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Black (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Aniela described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Aniela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.3% · 848
- Hispanic or Latino18.6% · 221
- Black or African American4.9% · 58
- Two or more races3.8% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 18
Popularity
Aniela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aniela from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 369 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aniela remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aniela by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Aniela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anielas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Illinois, Texas recorded the most babies named Aniela, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aniela
The name Aniela is a Polish feminine form of the Latin name Angelus, which means "angel" or "messenger of God". It is derived from the Greek word "angelos," which also translates to "messenger." The name has its roots in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, where angels were seen as divine beings who served as intermediaries between God and humans.
In Poland, the name Aniela became popular during the Middle Ages, particularly after the country's conversion to Christianity in the 10th century. It was often given to girls born on or around the feast day of St. Aniela Merici, the founder of the Ursuline Order of nuns, who lived in the 16th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Aniela can be found in the 14th-century Polish chronicle "Roczniki Królów Polskich" (Annals of the Polish Kings), where it mentions a woman named Aniela who was a member of the Polish nobility.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Aniela. One of the most famous was Aniela Krzyżanowska (1842-1886), a Polish writer and activist who played a significant role in the women's rights movement in the 19th century. Another prominent Aniela was Aniela Tułodziecki (1859-1936), a Polish educator and activist who established the first secular school for girls in Warsaw.
In the arts, Aniela Pająkówna (1825-1901) was a renowned Polish actress who performed in numerous plays and operas during the 19th century. In the field of science, Aniela Kozłowska (1892-1962) was a Polish physicist and chemist who made significant contributions to the study of radioactivity.
One of the most recent notable figures with the name Aniela was Aniela Pankiewicz (1908-1979), a Polish-born Canadian artist known for her paintings and illustrations depicting scenes from rural life in Poland.
While the name Aniela has its roots in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, it has been primarily associated with Polish culture and history, where it has been a popular choice for centuries, reflecting the country's deep-rooted Christian traditions and reverence for angelic beings.
People
Aniela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aniela as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Aniela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aniela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 950 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aniela going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 360,794 US residents.
Is Aniela a common name?
We classify Aniela as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,045 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aniela most popular?
The single biggest year for Aniela was 2010, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aniela is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aniela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,190 people with the name Aniela, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,971 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Aniela in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Aniela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aniela appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,189 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Aniela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aniela is White at 71.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Black (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Aniela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aniela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.3% (848 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Aniela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aniela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aniela in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Aniela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aniela in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Aniela can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Aniela?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.