Ashar
An Arabic name meaning "the tenth part, the tithe".
Name Census estimates that about 543 living Americans carry the first name Ashar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ashar today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ashar births was 2019 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ashar. 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 Ashar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
543
~ 1 in 631,223 Americans
Peak year
2019
43 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,600
Tracked since 1994
Census
Ashar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 564 people with the first name Ashar, which placed it at #18,965 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
#18,965
National first-name rank
People counted
564
564 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ashar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashar is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.9%) and White (7.6%). 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 Ashar 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 Ashar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander74.5% · 420
- Black or African American9.9% · 56
- White7.6% · 43
- Two or more races5.5% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 14
Popularity
Ashar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ashar 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 286 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ashar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ashar 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 Ashar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ashars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Ashar, while Illinois, Virginia, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ashar
The name Ashar has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, tracing its roots back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to be derived from the Arabic word "ashr," which means "ten" or "tenth." This connection suggests that the name may have been historically associated with numerology or a significance related to the number ten.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ashar can be found in medieval Arabic literature and manuscripts. It was occasionally used as a name for characters in stories or poems, though its exact meaning or symbolism is not always clear from these historical references.
In the 12th century, there was a notable Arab philosopher and mathematician named Ashar al-Din al-Tusi, born in 1201 in present-day Iran. He made significant contributions to the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and logic, and his work influenced the development of these disciplines in the Islamic world.
Another historical figure with the name Ashar was Ashar ibn Habib, a 9th-century Arab mathematician and astronomer from Baghdad. He is known for his work on the calculation of planetary movements and the development of astronomical tables.
In the realm of literature, there was an Arab poet named Ashar al-Ghawwas, who lived in the 13th century. He was renowned for his love poetry and his mastery of the Arabic language.
Ashar al-Din al-Isfahani was a 13th-century Arab historian and philosopher from Isfahan, Iran. He wrote extensively on the history of the Islamic world and the philosophy of religion.
Ashar ibn Khalid al-Qashi was a 15th-century Arab astronomer and mathematician from Qashán, Iran. He made important contributions to the study of planetary motions and the development of astronomical instruments.
While the name Ashar has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, its use has spread to other parts of the world over the centuries. However, it remains most closely associated with its historical origins and the contributions of notable individuals who bore this name throughout the Middle Ages and the golden age of Islamic science and literature.
People
Ashar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ashar 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
Ashar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ashar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 543 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ashar 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 631,223 US residents.
Is Ashar a common name?
We classify Ashar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 548 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ashar most popular?
The single biggest year for Ashar was 2019, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ashar is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ashar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 564 people with the name Ashar, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,965 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 Ashar 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 Ashar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ashar leans strongly male. 527 people counted with this name were male (92.8%), compared with 41 female bearers (7.2%). 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 Ashar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashar is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.9%) and White (7.6%). 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 Ashar most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ashar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (420 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 Ashar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ashar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ashar 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 Ashar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ashar 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 Ashar 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 common is the name Ashar?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Ashar at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.