Fun Facts About the Name Vanity
- More than 1 thousand babies named Vanity: U.S. records list 1,858 babies given the name Vanity from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Vanity Mean?
Vanity is an English given name taken unchanged from the English noun vanity, which means emptiness, futility, or excessive pride in one's own appearance or worth. The noun reached Middle English as vanite by way of Old French vanité, which comes from Latin vanitas, "emptiness, futility, worthlessness." That Latin noun was formed on the adjective vanus, "empty, vain, unreliable," the same root behind the English word vain. So the literal sense of the name's source word is "emptiness" or "hollowness," and the idea of personal conceit is a later development of the word's meaning rather than its original sense. Because the name is simply the ordinary word, it has no separate etymological tradition of its own.
Vanity Name History & Origins
Vanity is a vocabulary name: the English noun used as a personal name, rather than a form inherited from an older personal name through translation. Its history is therefore bound up with the word. Middle English vanite, from Old French vanité and Latin vanitas, was used in Christian writing for the fleeting, hollow quality of earthly things. In English Bibles the book of Ecclesiastes opens with "vanity of vanities," where the word renders Hebrew hevel, "breath" or "vapor," and means futility rather than conceit. The modern sense of self-conceit and preoccupation with appearance also developed within English.
Two famous literary uses belong to the word rather than to the personal name: the town of Vanity Fair in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), a market standing for worldly temptation, and William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair (1848), which borrowed Bunyan's phrase. In the 1980s the Canadian-born singer and actress Denise Matthews (1959 - 2016) performed under the stage name Vanity and led the group Vanity 6. As a given name, Vanity remains uncommon and occasional in the English-speaking world.
How Popular is the Name Vanity?
Vanity has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 1988. Its best rank was #1,268 in 1988.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #8,326 | 13 | 0.0008% |
| 2024 | #6,592 | 18 | 0.0011% |
| 2023 | #7,217 | 16 | 0.0010% |
| 2022 | #5,294 | 25 | 0.0015% |
| 2021 | #5,225 | 25 | 0.0015% |
| 2020 | #5,474 | 23 | 0.0014% |
| 2019 | #6,997 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2018 | #6,223 | 20 | 0.0012% |
| 2017 | #3,915 | 39 | 0.0023% |
| 2016 | #4,341 | 34 | 0.0019% |
| 2015 | #6,223 | 21 | 0.0012% |
| 2014 | #4,347 | 34 | 0.0019% |
| 2013 | #3,312 | 49 | 0.0028% |
| 2012 | #3,704 | 43 | 0.0024% |
| 2011 | #4,348 | 34 | 0.0019% |
| 2010 | #3,120 | 54 | 0.0030% |
| 2009 | #3,186 | 53 | 0.0029% |
| 2008 | #4,871 | 31 | 0.0016% |
| 2007 | #4,803 | 31 | 0.0016% |
| 2006 | #3,411 | 48 | 0.0025% |
| 2005 | #5,252 | 25 | 0.0014% |
| 2004 | #4,944 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 2003 | #4,935 | 26 | 0.0014% |
| 2002 | #3,975 | 33 | 0.0018% |
| 2001 | #4,204 | 30 | 0.0017% |
| 2000 | #3,733 | 35 | 0.0019% |
| 1999 | #3,963 | 30 | 0.0017% |
| 1998 | #3,297 | 38 | 0.0022% |
| 1997 | #3,893 | 29 | 0.0017% |
| 1996 | #4,049 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 1995 | #2,928 | 41 | 0.0023% |
| 1994 | #3,036 | 39 | 0.0022% |
| 1993 | #2,599 | 48 | 0.0027% |
| 1992 | #2,077 | 66 | 0.0036% |
| 1991 | #2,072 | 66 | 0.0035% |
| 1990 | #1,846 | 78 | 0.0041% |
| 1989 | #1,453 | 102 | 0.0055% |
| 1988 | #1,268 | 116 | 0.0065% |
| 1987 | #1,469 | 89 | 0.0051% |
| 1986 | #1,587 | 76 | 0.0044% |
| 1985 | #1,309 | 103 | 0.0060% |
| 1984 | #2,225 | 45 | 0.0027% |
| 1983 | #1,884 | 56 | 0.0034% |
| 1982 | #12,266 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Vanity Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You are fixed in your opinions, firm in your friendships and square in your dealings with others. You are an excellent worker. Since you are both possessive and emotional, you can be either very practical or very impractical and unpredictable. Your dual nature needs to become steadfast. You are the marrying kind. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
You are always looking for a chance to do your own thing, to be your own person, and to have things done your own way.
✦ Vanity's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Vanity's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.