Aum
A sacred Hindu mantra representing the primordial sound of creation.
Name Census estimates that about 247 living Americans carry the first name Aum. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Aum today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aum births was 2010 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aum. 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 Aum with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
247
~ 1 in 1,387,669 Americans
Peak year
2010
16 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,031
Tracked since 1999
Census
Aum in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 244 people with the first name Aum, which placed it at #33,765 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
#33,765
National first-name rank
People counted
244
244 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
90.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aum
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aum is Asian/Pacific Islander at 90.6%. The next largest groups are White (5.3%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Aum 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 Aum at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander90.6% · 221
- White5.3% · 13
- Two or more races2.0% · 5
- Black or African American0.8% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 1
Popularity
Aum: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aum 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 117 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aum remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aum 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 Aum during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aums live
Origin
Meaning and history of Aum
The name Aum has its origins in the ancient Sanskrit language of India, dating back to the Vedic period around 1500-500 BCE. It is a sacred syllable and a spiritual symbol in Hinduism, representing the primordial sound of the universe. The word "Aum" is derived from the Sanskrit root "av," which means "to protect, favor, or honor."
Aum is considered one of the most important spiritual words in the Hindu tradition. It is often chanted during meditation, prayers, and religious ceremonies. The Upanishads, ancient Hindu texts dating back to around 800-200 BCE, mention the significance of Aum and its connection to the ultimate reality, Brahman.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Aum can be found in the Aitareya Upanishad, which describes it as the "imperishable word" and the "highest brahman." The Bhagavad Gita, a revered Hindu scripture composed around the 5th century BCE, also mentions Aum as a sacred mantra.
Throughout history, several notable figures have been associated with the name Aum. One of the most famous is Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult leader responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. Another person with this name is Aum Namo, an Indian spiritual leader and author who founded the Aum Namo Shivaya movement in the 20th century.
Other historical figures with the name Aum include Aum Prakash, an Indian poet and writer from the 17th century, and Aum Vir Singh, a Sikh scholar and reformer who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Additionally, Aum Amma, a Hindu spiritual leader and founder of the Embracing the World movement, was born in the 20th century.
While the name Aum is deeply rooted in Hindu tradition and spirituality, it has also gained recognition and reverence among practitioners of other Eastern philosophies and belief systems, such as Buddhism and New Age movements. The universal and transcendent nature of Aum has made it a powerful symbol of enlightenment and self-realization across various cultures and belief systems.
People
Aum + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aum 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
Aum: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aum?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 247 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aum 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 1,387,669 US residents.
Is Aum a common name?
We classify Aum as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 249 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aum most popular?
The single biggest year for Aum was 2010, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aum is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aum in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 244 people with the name Aum, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,765 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 Aum 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 Aum?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aum leans strongly male. 230 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 16 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Aum?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aum is Asian/Pacific Islander at 90.6%. The next largest groups are White (5.3%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Aum most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Aum in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.6% (221 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 Aum in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aum a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aum 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 Aum still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aum 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 Aum 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 Aum?
Want to know how many people have the name Aum? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.