Anselmo
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Meaning
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Anselm, from Germanic ansi "god" and helm "helmet, protection"
The story
Anselmo wears armor twice: the Germanic elements ansi "god" and helm "helmet, protection" built Anselm, and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese polished it into Anselmo. The famous bearer is Saint Anselm, the eleventh-century monk from Aosta who became archbishop of Canterbury and argued, gently and in Latin, that faith could be reasoned about. Brazil took the name to heart: 16,673 men named Anselmo in the census, 3,262 born in the 1960s and 4,848 in the 1980s. The American record is a study in persistence: 127 boys in the 1910s, and from the 1930s through the 2000s the decade count never once leaves the band between 215 and 299, eight straight decades inside one narrow corridor, before easing to 143 in the 2010s and 71 so far this decade. A god-helmet does not rust. It just sits there, protecting.
How popular is Anselmo around the world?
In the United States, Anselmo is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025. In Spain, 3,742 residents are named Anselmo, the 520th most common name among men, with a mean age of 65.4 years.
Anselmo is on the official records of the United States, Spain, Brazil, Mexico City, Chile and Argentina.
United States
on record
In the United States, Anselmo is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Anselmo has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Spain
1 in 12,000
In Spain, 3,742 residents are named Anselmo, the 520th most common name among men, with a mean age of 65.4 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Brazil
1 in 12,000
At the 2022 census, 16,673 people in Brazil were named Anselmo, ranked 1,196th, with a median age of 46.
Among people named Anselmo living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 62 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Mexico City City
1 in 39,000
In Mexico City, there were 3 registrations of Anselmo in 2022.
share of that year’s registrations in the city
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023 (1 registration through 3 Mar) is excluded as partial. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Chile
1 in 59,000
In Chile, 3 boys were registered as Anselmo in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
share of that year’s name registrations
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Argentina
1 in 66,000
In Argentina, 10 newborns were given the name Anselmo in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Austria
last on record 2015
Anselmo is not on the 2025 record for Austria, which publishes every first name down to a single birth, so the name was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Montevideo City
last on record 2002
Anselmo is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
South Australia
last on record 1967
Anselmo is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Anselmo deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Anselmo truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Anselmo fits with your family’s names and surname.
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