Anson
- Pronunciation
- [An-son]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Son Of Ann (Grace)
- Origin
- German
About the Name Anson
Anson is a name of English and German lineage, traditionally understood as a patronymic meaning "son of Ann" — that is, the descendant of a bearer of Ann, itself rooted in the Hebrew Hannah ("grace" or "favor"). Like many surnames that crossed over into first-name use, it carries the crisp, two-syllable feel of an English family name while keeping a gentle thread back to its maternal origin, a quiet nod to grace passed down through the generations.
As a given name, Anson has the steady, understated quality of a surname brought forward — familiar enough to feel grounded, uncommon enough to stand apart. Its appeal lies in that balance: it sounds settled and traditional without belonging to any single decade's wave of fashion, which has made it a quiet favorite among parents drawn to vintage surname-style names. The clean An- opening pairs it naturally with classics like Anna and Andrew, while its surname heritage gives it a slightly distinguished, lived-in air.
Anson first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2013, climbed to its peak in 2016 at rank #785, and last appeared in the top-1000 in 2019, when it sat at #978. Across its years on the list it was given to roughly 1,835 boys, marking it as a genuinely modern entrant rather than a long-running staple — a name with room left to grow. Recorded variants include Hanson, which leans even more clearly into the surname tradition while echoing the same gracious root.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Anson
US Popularity History (2013–2019)
Annual US births named Anson by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2016 with 302 boys named Anson (boy rank #785 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2019, ranked #978 for boys (218 US births). That's 193 places below its 2016 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 Anson 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 Anson the strongest states are Kentucky, New York, North Carolina.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | #581 | 18 |
| 2 | New York | #722 | 118 |
| 3 | North Carolina | #739 | 76 |
| 4 | Virginia | #750 | 31 |
| 5 | Colorado | #760 | 16 |
| 6 | Indiana | #796 | 47 |
| 7 | Ohio | #808 | 50 |
| 8 | Tennessee | #840 | 31 |
| 9 | California | #841 | 250 |
| 10 | Georgia | #842 | 38 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | #904 | 21 |
| 2 | Texas | #900 | 157 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #859 | 34 |
| 4 | Washington | #857 | 24 |
| 5 | Georgia | #842 | 38 |
| 6 | California | #841 | 250 |
| 7 | Tennessee | #840 | 31 |
| 8 | Ohio | #808 | 50 |
| 9 | Indiana | #796 | 47 |
| 10 | Colorado | #760 | 16 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Anson in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanson | Son Of Hans.Variants Include Hansen, Hanssen, And Hansson. | Male | German |
Looking for names like Anson?
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 Anson to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Anson against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).