Bharath
An Indian masculine name meaning "revered" or "nourisher".
Name Census estimates that about 90 living Americans carry the first name Bharath. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bharath today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bharath births was 2000 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bharath. 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 Bharath with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Bharath. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
90
~ 1 in 3,808,382 Americans
Peak year
2000
8 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,390
Tracked since 1989
Census
Bharath in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,128 people with the first name Bharath, which placed it at #11,389 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
#11,389
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,128 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bharath
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bharath is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.4%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Hispanic (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 Bharath 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 Bharath at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.4% · 1,087
- White2.1% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
- Black or African American0.4% · 4
- Two or more races0.3% · 3
Popularity
Bharath: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bharath 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 48 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
Bharath 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 Bharath 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 Bharath
The name Bharath is derived from the Sanskrit word "Bharata," which means "the cherished" or "the beloved." It has its origins in ancient Indian culture and is closely associated with the epic Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.
The name Bharath is believed to have been first mentioned in the Mahabharata, where it referred to the ancient Indian kingdom ruled by the Pandava brothers, who were the central characters of the epic. The name is also associated with the legendary emperor Bharata, who was considered the ancestor of the Bharata clan and the founder of the Bharata dynasty.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Bharath can be found in the Puranas, a collection of ancient Hindu texts that recount the histories of the universe, the deities, and the ancient kings. In these texts, Bharath is often mentioned as the name of a revered king or a sage.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Bharath. One of the most famous was Bharath, the younger brother of Lord Rama, the central figure in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Bharath was known for his unwavering loyalty, devotion, and respect for his elder brother, and his name has become synonymous with these virtues.
Another notable Bharath was Maharaja Bharath Chand, a 16th-century ruler of the Garhwal kingdom in present-day Uttarakhand, India. He was renowned for his military prowess and his efforts to unite the various princely states in the region.
In more recent times, Bharath Narayanan was an Indian scientist and pioneer in the field of rocket propulsion. He played a crucial role in India's space program and was instrumental in the development of the country's first satellite launch vehicle, the SLV-3.
Bharath Ratna, born in 1925, was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer. He was a proponent of the Bharatanatyam dance form and played a significant role in its revival and popularization in the mid-20th century.
Lastly, Bharath Raj was an Indian film actor and producer who appeared in numerous Tamil and Telugu language films from the 1970s to the 1990s. He was known for his charismatic on-screen presence and his contributions to the South Indian film industry.
People
Bharath + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bharath as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bharath: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bharath?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 90 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bharath 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 3,808,382 US residents.
Is Bharath a common name?
We classify Bharath as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 92 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bharath most popular?
The single biggest year for Bharath was 2000, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bharath is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bharath in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,128 people with the name Bharath, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,389 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 Bharath 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 Bharath?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bharath appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,128 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Bharath?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bharath is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.4%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Hispanic (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 Bharath most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Bharath in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.4% (1,087 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 Bharath in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bharath a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bharath 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 Bharath still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bharath 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 Bharath 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 Bharath?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.