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The first name 
Anakin

Anakin is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

Anakin is a common name for boys!

The name Anakin isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Anakin ranks 755. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 2 were named Anakin. If you polled the whole US population – children, adults and seniors – you’d find less than one in 10,000 to be named Anakin.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Anakin

What does the name 
Anakin mean?

The name Anakin is becoming increasingly popular. It was invented by George Lucas as the real name for his character Darth Vader. The name Anakin is first mentioned in the film ‘Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi’ (1983).

Lucas may have based it... on the surname of his friend Ken Annakin. The surname is of Germanic origin and probably means 'son of Anno' with Anno meaning 'eagle'.

Anakin -
special, but at home in many states

You may not know anyone named Anakin, but there’s a good chance you live in the same state as someone with that name. In fact, 37 states are home to men and boys named Anakin. (To be fair, a given name is only included in a state’s official statistics if there are at least five people with that name living in that state – so it’s entirely possible that there are still a few men and boys named Anakin living in one state or another. If your name is Anakin and you live outside of the states highlighted on the map, please let us know so we can refine our statistics even further). And while the first name is present in many states, it is still not one of the popular ones. In Nevada, which has the most people named Anakin relative to the population, you still have to ask 13,156 men and boys their names before you hear Anakin as an answer just once.

Anakin has 6 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is a very popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 9.0% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter J is more common for boys' names.

With six letters, the name Anakin is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 9.0% of all boys' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the boys' names that start with an A, Anthony is the most common.

Other names with 
A, n, a, k, i and n

If you take all the letters in the name Anakin – A, n, a, k, i and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Akanni or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Anakin

If your name is Anakin and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Anakin

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Anakin, you can simply say:

Apple

Nut

Apple

Koala

Igloo

Nut

This is how the name Anakin is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Anakin in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Anakin

Anakin

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Anakin

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Anakin is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
N
A
K
I
N

Have you ever waved the name Anakin

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
N
A
K
I
N

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Anakin sounds like this: