Arnav
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "ocean of radiance".
Name Census estimates that about 3,507 living Americans carry the first name Arnav. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arnav today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arnav births was 2011 (249 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arnav. 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 Arnav with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Arnav is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,734 Americans
Peak year
2011
249 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,784
Tracked since 1991
Census
Arnav in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,722 people with the first name Arnav, which placed it at #4,838 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
#4,838
National first-name rank
People counted
3.7K
3,722 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arnav
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Two or More Races (1.0%). 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 Arnav 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 Arnav at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.2% · 3,582
- White1.3% · 48
- Two or more races1.0% · 39
- Black or African American0.6% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 15
Popularity
Arnav: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arnav from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,651 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arnav 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 Arnav during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arnavs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Arnav, while Tennessee, Missouri, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 131 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arnav
The name Arnav has its origins in the Sanskrit language, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, specifically in the regions that are now modern-day India and Pakistan. The name Arnav is derived from two Sanskrit words: "Arya," meaning noble or honorable, and "Nava," meaning new or fresh.
In Hindu mythology, the name Arnav is associated with Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism. Arnav is also mentioned in several ancient Hindu texts, including the Vedas and the Puranas, which are considered sacred scriptures. The earliest known reference to the name Arnav can be found in the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic composed between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of an individual with the name Arnav is Arnav Ketkar, a renowned Indian musician and composer who lived in the 16th century. Another notable figure with this name is Arnav Goswami, an Indian journalist and news anchor who founded the news channel Republic TV in 2017.
Throughout history, several prominent individuals have borne the name Arnav. These include Arnav Kapoor, an Indian actor and model born in 1985, Arnav Mukherjee, an Indian cricketer born in 1993, and Arnav Sharma, an Indian author and entrepreneur born in 1981.
Additionally, Arnav Kapur was an Indian film director and screenwriter who worked in Bollywood during the 1980s and 1990s. He directed several popular films, including "Chameli Ki Shaadi" and "Pyaar Ke Side Effects." Another notable Arnav was Arnav Deshmukh, an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived in the 20th century and made significant contributions to the field of Kathak, a major classical dance form of India.
People
Arnav + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arnav 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
Arnav: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arnav?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,507 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arnav 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 97,734 US residents.
Is Arnav a common name?
We classify Arnav as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,542 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arnav most popular?
The single biggest year for Arnav was 2011, when 249 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arnav is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arnav in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,722 people with the name Arnav, or 1.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,838 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 Arnav 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 Arnav?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arnav appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,724 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Arnav?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arnav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Two or More Races (1.0%). 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 Arnav most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Arnav in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.2% (3,582 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 Arnav in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arnav a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arnav in the SSA data are male. 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 Arnav still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arnav 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 Arnav 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 share the name Arnav?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.