Ashwini
A feminine Hindu name denoting the twin deities representing morning twilight.
Name Census estimates that about 146 living Americans carry the first name Ashwini. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ashwini today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ashwini births was 2002 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ashwini. 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 Ashwini with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
146
~ 1 in 2,347,632 Americans
Peak year
2002
16 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,583
Tracked since 1981
Census
Ashwini in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,012 people with the first name Ashwini, which placed it at #7,545 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
#7,545
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,012 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ashwini
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashwini is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Ashwini 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 Ashwini at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.3% · 1,957
- White1.3% · 27
- Black or African American0.4% · 9
- Two or more races0.4% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 4
Popularity
Ashwini: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ashwini from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 66 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
Ashwini 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 Ashwini 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 Ashwini
The name Ashwini has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that has been spoken in the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. It is believed to have first appeared in the Vedas, the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism, which date back to around 1500-500 BCE.
Ashwini is derived from the Sanskrit word "ashva," meaning horse, and is often associated with the Ashvins, the twin horsemen or divine horsemen in Hindu mythology. The Ashvins were revered as the gods of healing, and their names were invoked in prayers for health, fertility, and protection.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ashwini can be found in the Rigveda, one of the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism. In the Rigveda, the Ashvins are mentioned as the deities who bring light, dispel darkness, and protect the worshippers from harm.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Ashwini. One of the most famous was Ashwini Kumaraswamy (1877-1953), an Indian social reformer and freedom fighter who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement. Another prominent Ashwini was Ashwini Kumar Dutta (1856-1923), a Bengali writer, journalist, and social reformer who advocated for women's education and abolition of the caste system.
In the field of science, Ashwini Kumar Gupta (1923-2001) was an Indian physicist and academician who made significant contributions to the study of nuclear physics and cosmic rays. In the world of sports, Ashwini Nachappa (born 1989) is an Indian tennis player who has represented her country in numerous international tournaments.
The name Ashwini has also been associated with several deities and spiritual figures in Hindu mythology. One notable example is Ashwini, the wife of Shiva and the goddess of fertility and prosperity. She is often depicted as a beautiful woman riding a horse or a chariot drawn by horses.
People
Ashwini + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ashwini 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
Ashwini: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ashwini?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 146 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ashwini 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 2,347,632 US residents.
Is Ashwini a common name?
We classify Ashwini as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 149 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ashwini most popular?
The single biggest year for Ashwini was 2002, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ashwini 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 Ashwini in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,012 people with the name Ashwini, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,545 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 Ashwini 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 Ashwini?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ashwini leans strongly female. 1,854 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 160 male bearers (7.9%). 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 Ashwini?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashwini is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.3%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Ashwini most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ashwini in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.3% (1,957 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 Ashwini in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ashwini a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ashwini 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 Ashwini still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ashwini 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 Ashwini 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 Ashwini?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Ashwini at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.