Anderson
- Pronunciation
- [An-der-son]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Son Of Ander
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Anderson
Anderson is a Scottish-English patronymic surname meaning "son of Andrew" (see separate entry on Andrew for the Greek Andreas etymology meaning "manly" or "strong"). The surname appears in Scottish records continuously since the medieval period, and Anderson families became prominent in Scottish-American immigration through the 18th and 19th centuries.
The name's transition from surname to American first name accelerated through the late 1990s and 2000s, riding the broader American taste for surname-style first names alongside Cooper, Carter, and Hudson. Notable bearers include American journalist Anderson Cooper (born 1967, the iconic CNN news anchor and son of Gloria Vanderbilt — anchoring the name in 21st-century American media memory); Brazilian-American actor Anderson Silva (the Brazilian MMA fighter); and the surname-bearer Wes Anderson (American filmmaker).
Anderson's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 2000 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. The name has been used predominantly for boys but has occasional girls' usage. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the surname-style sophistication, the in-built Andrew-classical pedigree, and the popular three-syllable structure with the strong final -son. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. Common nicknames Andy (shared with Andrew), Anders, and the rare Sonny each carry distinct registers; international forms include Andersen (Danish), Andersson (Swedish), and the broader Andrew/Andreas family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Anderson
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Anderson by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2012 with 1,249 boys named Anderson (boy rank #280 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #363 for boys (898 US births). That's 83 places below its 2012 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Anderson Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Anderson the strongest states are District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Delaware.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | #154 | 62 |
| 2 | Rhode Island | #163 | 41 |
| 3 | Delaware | #165 | 19 |
| 4 | Virginia | #199 | 427 |
| 5 | Alabama | #202 | 261 |
| 6 | Tennessee | #202 | 399 |
| 7 | Maryland | #202 | 297 |
| 8 | Kentucky | #214 | 230 |
| 9 | North Carolina | #215 | 512 |
| 10 | New Hampshire | #216 | 16 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wisconsin | #587 | 64 |
| 2 | Minnesota | #586 | 81 |
| 3 | Arizona | #550 | 106 |
| 4 | Illinois | #440 | 224 |
| 5 | Utah | #429 | 72 |
| 6 | Oregon | #423 | 82 |
| 7 | Michigan | #416 | 199 |
| 8 | Indiana | #412 | 160 |
| 9 | California | #411 | 775 |
| 10 | Washington | #411 | 167 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Anderson in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Anderson
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Anderson.
- Anderson Cooper — TV Show Host (1967)
Looking for names like Anderson?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Anderson to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Anderson against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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