Kanya
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "young woman" or "virgin maiden".
Name Census estimates that about 600 living Americans carry the first name Kanya. It is a predominantly female name (96.0% of registrations). The average person named Kanya today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kanya births was 2007 (46 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kanya. 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 Kanya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
600
~ 1 in 571,257 Americans
Peak year
2007
46 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2006 SSA rank
#12,770
Tracked since 1972
Census
Kanya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 745 people with the first name Kanya, which placed it at #15,443 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
#15,443
National first-name rank
People counted
745
745 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
50.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kanya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kanya is Black at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.9%) and Hispanic (6.8%). 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 Kanya 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 Kanya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American50.9% · 379
- Asian and Pacific Islander30.9% · 230
- Hispanic or Latino6.8% · 51
- White6.0% · 45
- Two or more races5.2% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Kanya
Kanya leans heavily female at 96.0% of total registrations, but 25 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kanya as a male name
- Ranked #13,024 in 2006
- 5 male births in 2006
- Peak: 2004 (20 births)
Kanya as a female name
- Ranked #12,770 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2007 (46 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kanya leans strongly female. 668 people counted with this name were female (89.4%), compared with 79 male bearers (10.6%).
Popularity
Kanya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kanya from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 311 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
Kanya 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 Kanya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kanyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, Illinois recorded the most babies named Kanya, while Mississippi, Illinois, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kanya
The name Kanya has its origins in Sanskrit, one of the oldest Indo-Aryan languages of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "kanya," which means "young woman," "maiden," or "virgin." The name has been in use for thousands of years and is deeply rooted in Hindu mythology and culture.
In Hinduism, Kanya is the name of the sixth astrological sign, corresponding to the constellation Virgo. The name is associated with purity, innocence, and fertility. In ancient Hindu texts, such as the Vedas and Puranas, Kanya is often used as a symbolic representation of the divine feminine principle.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kanya can be found in the Rigveda, one of the oldest and most revered Hindu scriptures, dating back to around 1500 BCE. The name appears in several hymns and verses, often in the context of rituals and prayers.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women who bore the name Kanya. One of the most famous was Kanya Kumari, a Hindu mystic and saint who lived in the 16th century CE. She is revered as an embodiment of divine wisdom and is believed to have attained spiritual enlightenment at a young age.
Another notable Kanya was Kanya Devi, a Hindu goddess associated with fertility, prosperity, and abundance. She is believed to have been worshipped in ancient times and is still revered in various parts of India today.
In the realm of literature, Kanya Upanishad is an ancient Hindu scripture that explores the concept of the divine feminine and the union of the individual soul with the Supreme Being. The text is believed to date back to around the 5th century BCE.
Other notable figures with the name Kanya include Kanya Rasi, a 13th-century Indian princess and poet, and Kanya Kumaraswamy, a 20th-century Indian freedom fighter and social reformer.
While the name Kanya has its roots in ancient Hindu culture, it has transcended religious and cultural boundaries over time and is now used by people of various backgrounds and ethnicities around the world.
People
Kanya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kanya 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
Kanya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kanya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 600 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kanya 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 571,257 US residents.
Is Kanya a common name?
We classify Kanya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 618 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kanya most popular?
The single biggest year for Kanya was 2007, when 46 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kanya 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 Kanya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 745 people with the name Kanya, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,443 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 Kanya 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 Kanya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kanya leans strongly female. 668 people counted with this name were female (89.4%), compared with 79 male bearers (10.6%). 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 Kanya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kanya is Black at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.9%) and Hispanic (6.8%). 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 Kanya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kanya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.9% (379 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 Kanya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kanya a female name?
Yes, 96.0% of people registered as Kanya 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 Kanya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kanya 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 Kanya 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 the name Kanya?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.