Kama
A Sanskrit word representing love, desire, or pleasure.
Name Census estimates that about 645 living Americans carry the first name Kama. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kama today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kama births was 1970 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kama. 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 Kama with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
645
~ 1 in 531,402 Americans
Peak year
1970
39 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2012 SSA rank
#15,877
Tracked since 1954
Census
Kama in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 823 people with the first name Kama, which placed it at #14,344 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
#14,344
National first-name rank
People counted
823
823 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kama
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kama is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). 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 Kama 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 Kama at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.4% · 555
- Black or African American15.8% · 130
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 55
- Two or more races5.3% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Kama: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kama from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 293 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kama 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 Kama during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Kama, while Oklahoma, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kama
The name Kama has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient language of India dating back several millennia. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Kama," meaning desire, love, or lust. The name is closely tied to the Hindu god of love and desire, also known as Kamadeva or Madana.
Kama is mentioned extensively in ancient Hindu scriptures, such as the Vedas, Puranas, and the epic Mahabharata. In the Vedic tradition, Kama is personified as a powerful deity responsible for human desire and passion. The Atharva Veda, one of the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism, contains hymns dedicated to Kama.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kama can be found in the renowned ancient Indian treatise on love and relationships, the Kama Sutra, written by the sage Vatsyayana in the 3rd century CE. The text explores various aspects of human desire, sexuality, and the pursuit of pleasure.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Kama. One of the most famous was Kama Sutra, the Indian philosopher and Sanskrit scholar who authored the eponymous text on love and relationships in the 7th century CE.
Another prominent historical figure named Kama was Kama Rana, a 12th-century Hindu king of the Ghurid dynasty, who ruled over parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was known for his military prowess and involvement in the defense against the Mongol invasions.
In the realm of Indian literature, Kama Jayanti was a renowned 16th-century Bengali poet and author, celebrated for her contributions to the Vaishnava devotional poetry tradition.
Kama Lochana, born in the 18th century, was a renowned Sanskrit scholar and commentator from the Indian state of Odisha, known for her extensive works on Hindu scriptures and philosophical texts.
In more recent times, Kama Sastry (1892-1953) was an influential Indian artist and painter from the Bengal Renaissance movement, renowned for his vibrant depictions of Hindu mythology and traditional Indian themes.
People
Kama + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kama as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kama: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kama?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 645 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kama 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 531,402 US residents.
Is Kama a common name?
We classify Kama as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 710 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kama most popular?
The single biggest year for Kama was 1970, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kama is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kama in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 823 people with the name Kama, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,344 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 Kama 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 Kama?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kama leans strongly female. 721 people counted with this name were female (87.6%), compared with 102 male bearers (12.4%). 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 Kama?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kama is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.7%). 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 Kama most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kama in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.4% (555 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 Kama in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kama a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kama 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 Kama still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kama 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 Kama 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 have Kama as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.