Arthi
Derived from the Sanskrit word "artha," meaning wealth, prosperity, purpose.
Name Census estimates that about 83 living Americans carry the first name Arthi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Arthi today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arthi births was 1995 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arthi. 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 Arthi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Arthi. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
83
~ 1 in 4,129,570 Americans
Peak year
1995
11 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2012 SSA rank
#17,183
Tracked since 1982
Census
Arthi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 447 people with the first name Arthi, which placed it at #22,320 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
#22,320
National first-name rank
People counted
447
447 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arthi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arthi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.3%) and Black (0.7%). 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 Arthi 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 Arthi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.9% · 433
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 6
- Black or African American0.7% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
- Two or more races0.4% · 2
- White0.2% · 1
Popularity
Arthi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arthi from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 37 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arthi 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 Arthi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arthi
The name Arthi has its origins in the Tamil language, which is primarily spoken in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the neighboring countries of Sri Lanka and Singapore. The name's etymology can be traced back to the ancient Tamil word "Aarthi," which means "worship" or "adoration."
In Hindu tradition, Aarthi is a ritual performed during religious ceremonies, where a lamp or flame is waved in a circular motion in front of deities or sacred objects while mantras and hymns are chanted. This practice is believed to dispel negative energies and invoke divine blessings. The name Arthi, therefore, carries a spiritual significance and is associated with devotion and reverence.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Arthi can be found in ancient Tamil literature, such as the Sangam period works, which date back to the first few centuries CE. However, it is difficult to pinpoint specific historical figures from that era who bore this name, as record-keeping was limited during those times.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Arthi was a Tamil poet and scholar who lived during the 9th century CE. Known as Arthi Siva Vaakiar, she was renowned for her contributions to Tamil literature and her expertise in the Tamil language and its grammar.
Another notable individual with the name Arthi was Arthi Annamalai, a Tamil philosopher and spiritual leader who lived in the 18th century. He is credited with reviving and propagating the teachings of the Tamil Siddha tradition, which combines elements of yoga, meditation, and traditional medicine.
In more recent times, Arthi Vedavathi was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1915 to 2004. She was a pioneer in the field of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form, and played a significant role in its revival and popularization.
Another prominent figure was Arthi Agarwal, an Indian actress and model who appeared in several Bollywood and Telugu films in the 1990s and early 2000s. She was born in 1980 and tragically passed away in 2012 at the young age of 32.
While the name Arthi is more commonly found in the Tamil-speaking regions of India and Sri Lanka, it has also gained popularity among the Indian diaspora communities around the world, particularly in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.
People
Arthi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arthi 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
Arthi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arthi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 83 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arthi 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 4,129,570 US residents.
Is Arthi a common name?
We classify Arthi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 85 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arthi most popular?
The single biggest year for Arthi was 1995, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arthi is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arthi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 447 people with the name Arthi, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,320 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 Arthi 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 Arthi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arthi appears almost entirely female. Of the 449 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Arthi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arthi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.3%) and Black (0.7%). 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 Arthi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Arthi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.9% (433 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 Arthi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arthi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arthi 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 Arthi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arthi 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 Arthi 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 named Arthi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.