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Anita

Around 46,000 Polish women carry it, but it's fading fast: only 57 baby girls got it last year. It grew out of Ana, a form of Anna, and carries the old sense of grace and favor.

Anita Pronunciation

Anita is pronounced ah-NYEE-tah (/aˈɲita/).

Alive in 2025
45,962
Newborns 2025
57
National rank
#201
Next name day
17 August
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What Anita means

Where Anita comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

The name Anita grew out of Ana, itself a form of Anna, and behind all three stands the Hebrew Hannah, meaning grace and favor. Spanish and Portuguese speakers used Anita as an affectionate short form of Ana, and from there it spread into Polish and English among other languages as a name people gave on its own. So the meaning most often attached to Anita, grace and favor, comes down through that older root rather than from anything added later.

In Poland the name found real bearers. Anita Włodarczyk, the hammer thrower, won three Olympic gold medals and broke the world record more than once, and her name now shows up on stadium boards and in match reports. On a school register you might find one Anita seated near the Annas and Hannas, close cousins by origin.

Short. Clear. Easy to spell. The Polish gloss keeps to the source: łaska, wdzięk, grace and favor.

When Anita celebrates name day

Anita appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 17 August.

Next name day
17 August
Tuesday in 2027
Next one in 341 days
Name days

The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.

Also celebrates

Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.

How many people are named Anita

1 in 490 women in Poland is named Anita. 45,962 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #201 among female names.

People with the name Anita 2019 → 2025
45,962 +838 since 2019
2020 45,185 +61
2021 45,266 +81
2022 45,356 +90
2023 45,828 +472
2024 45,901 +73
2025 45,962 +61

Anita's popularity over time

57 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #333 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #201 name among living women, even as it slips to #333 among newborns.

hover a bar to explore
57 newborns with the name Anita in 2025
national rank #333 that year

Where Anita is most popular

Anita is most popular in Lesser Poland, 80% above the national average (115 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Podlaskie (+30%) and Lower Silesian (+18%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 42% and 35% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Anita as a middle name

Anita is a first name for 45,962 women in Poland and a middle name for another 12,390, a 79/21 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 102nd, between Gertruda (12,475) and Mieczysława (12,221).

As a first name
45,962
As a middle name
12,390
first name 79% middle name 21%
Middle-name ranking women

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

Next in ranking → Aniela #22