Anora
An English feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "grace".
Name Census estimates that about 1,046 living Americans carry the first name Anora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Anora today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Anora births was 2021 (91 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Anora. 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 Anora with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Anora is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 327,681 Americans
Peak year
2021
91 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,379
Tracked since 1923
Census
Anora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 784 people with the first name Anora, which placed it at #14,861 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
#14,861
National first-name rank
People counted
784
784 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Anora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anora is White at 53.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (10.7%). 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 Anora 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 Anora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.2% · 417
- Black or African American16.5% · 129
- Hispanic or Latino10.7% · 84
- Two or more races9.7% · 76
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.1% · 71
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 7
Popularity
Anora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Anora from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 569 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Anora remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Anora 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 Anora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Anoras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Anora, while Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Anora
The name Anora has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "anura," which means "following after" or "in accordance with." In Hindu mythology, Anura is also the name of a serpent deity associated with the underworld.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Anora can be found in the ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, which dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In this text, Anora is mentioned as the name of a minor character, a princess from a kingdom in northern India.
During the medieval period, the name Anora was particularly popular among certain Buddhist communities in Southeast Asia, such as in Thailand and Myanmar. It was often given to girls born on auspicious days or during certain astrological events.
In the 16th century, a Burmese queen named Anora Devi was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of Buddhist monasteries. She ruled the Toungoo Dynasty from 1584 to 1589 and was a prominent figure in the cultural and religious life of the region.
Another notable figure with the name Anora was Anora Thakor, an Indian activist and social reformer who lived from 1856 to 1945. She fought against the practice of child marriage and worked to improve the education and rights of women in Gujarat, India.
In the 20th century, Anora Petrova was a famous Bulgarian actress and theater director who lived from 1915 to 1986. She was a prominent figure in the Bulgarian cultural scene and received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the performing arts.
The name Anora has also been used in various literary works, including the fantasy novel series "Dragon Age" by David Gaider, where Anora is a character who becomes the Queen of Ferelden.
People
Anora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Anora 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
Anora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Anora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,046 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Anora 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 327,681 US residents.
Is Anora a common name?
We classify Anora as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,059 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Anora most popular?
The single biggest year for Anora was 2021, when 91 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Anora is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Anora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 784 people with the name Anora, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,861 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 Anora 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 Anora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Anora appears almost entirely female. Of the 784 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Anora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Anora is White at 53.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.5%) and Hispanic (10.7%). 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 Anora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Anora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.2% (417 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 Anora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Anora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Anora 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 Anora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Anora 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 Anora 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 called Anora?
You can see how many Americans are named Anora on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.