Ambika
A feminine given name of Sanskrit origin meaning "mother of the divine powers".
Name Census estimates that about 372 living Americans carry the first name Ambika. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ambika today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ambika births was 2000 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ambika. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ambika with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
372
~ 1 in 921,383 Americans
Peak year
2000
20 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,204
Tracked since 1977
Census
Ambika in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,312 people with the first name Ambika, which placed it at #10,245 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,245
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,312 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
89.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ambika
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ambika is Asian/Pacific Islander at 89.3%. The next largest groups are White (3.7%) and Black (3.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ambika described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ambika at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander89.3% · 1,172
- White3.7% · 49
- Black or African American3.3% · 43
- Two or more races2.5% · 33
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 6
Popularity
Ambika: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ambika from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 110 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ambika remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ambika by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ambika during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ambikas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ambika
The name Ambika is derived from the Sanskrit language and has its origins in ancient Hindu mythology and culture. The word 'Ambika' is a combination of two Sanskrit words, 'Ambi' meaning mother, and 'Ka' meaning power or energy, thus translating to 'Mother of Power' or 'The Powerful Mother'.
In Hindu scriptures, Ambika is considered one of the many names and forms of the Mother Goddess, who is revered as the source of all creation and the embodiment of divine feminine energy. She is often associated with strength, fertility, and nurturing qualities.
The earliest recorded references to the name Ambika can be found in the ancient Hindu texts such as the Puranas and the Vedas, which date back to the 1st millennium BCE. In the Devi Mahatmya, a significant text in Shaktism (the Hindu tradition that celebrates the Divine Feminine), Ambika is described as the primordial energy that gave birth to the universe.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Ambika was Queen Ambika, the wife of King Vichitravirya from the Kuru dynasty, as mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata (c. 400 BCE – 400 CE). Another notable figure was Ambika Dutta, a Sanskrit scholar and poet who lived in the 16th century CE in Bengal, India.
During the medieval period, the name Ambika gained popularity in different parts of the Indian subcontinent. Ambika Yogindra (1506–1597 CE) was a celebrated Kashmiri poet and mystic, known for her devotional poetry dedicated to the Divine Mother.
In more recent times, the name Ambika has been associated with several influential figures, such as Ambika Soni (born 1942), an Indian politician and former member of the Indian Parliament, and Ambika Prasad Ojha (1919–1994), a renowned Indian historian and scholar of ancient Indian history and culture.
Other notable individuals with the name Ambika include Ambika Dutt (1908–1998), an Indian freedom fighter and social activist, and Ambika Pillai (born 1963), a popular Indian classical dancer and choreographer.
People
Ambika + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ambika as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ambika: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ambika?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 372 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ambika going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 921,383 US residents.
Is Ambika a common name?
We classify Ambika as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 382 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ambika most popular?
The single biggest year for Ambika was 2000, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ambika is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ambika in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,312 people with the name Ambika, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,245 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ambika in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ambika?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ambika leans strongly female. 1,271 people counted with this name were female (97.5%), compared with 33 male bearers (2.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ambika?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ambika is Asian/Pacific Islander at 89.3%. The next largest groups are White (3.7%) and Black (3.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ambika most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ambika in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.3% (1,172 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ambika in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ambika a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ambika in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ambika still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ambika in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ambika can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Ambika?
You can see how many people have the name Ambika on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.