Kavi
Feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "wise one" or "poet".
Name Census estimates that about 890 living Americans carry the first name Kavi. It is a predominantly male name (96.3% of registrations). The average person named Kavi today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kavi births was 2024 (72 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kavi. 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 Kavi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
890
~ 1 in 385,117 Americans
Peak year
2024
72 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,193
Tracked since 1984
Census
Kavi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 844 people with the first name Kavi, which placed it at #14,072 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
#14,072
National first-name rank
People counted
844
844 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kavi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kavi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (25.1%) and White (11.7%). 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 Kavi 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 Kavi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander49.4% · 417
- Two or more races25.1% · 212
- White11.7% · 99
- Black or African American9.0% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Kavi
Kavi leans heavily male at 96.3% of total registrations, but 33 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kavi as a male name
- Ranked #2,193 in 2024
- 66 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (66 births)
Kavi as a female name
- Ranked #14,300 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kavi leans strongly male. 731 people counted with this name were male (86.4%), compared with 115 female bearers (13.6%).
Popularity
Kavi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kavi from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 329 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kavi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kavi 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 Kavi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kavis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, New York, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Kavi, while Texas, Illinois, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kavi
The name Kavi is derived from the Sanskrit language, which has its roots in ancient India. It is believed to have originated around the 2nd millennium BCE, during the Vedic period. The name Kavi is closely associated with the word "kavya," which means poetry or poetic composition in Sanskrit.
In Hindu mythology, the term "kavi" was often used to refer to sages, seers, or poets who were revered for their wisdom and poetic talents. They were considered the custodians of sacred knowledge, and their verses and hymns were regarded as divinely inspired.
One of the earliest known references to the name Kavi can be found in the Rigveda, a collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns composed around 1500–1000 BCE. The Rigveda mentions several poets and seers with the name Kavi, such as Kavi Bhrigu and Kavi Gritsamada.
Throughout Indian history, the name Kavi has been associated with numerous scholars, poets, and literary figures. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Kalidasa, a renowned Sanskrit poet and dramatist who lived during the 4th-5th century CE. His works, including the epic poems Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava, are considered masterpieces of classical Sanskrit literature.
Another notable figure was Kavi Karnapura, a 12th-century Kashmiri poet and linguist who made significant contributions to the study of Sanskrit grammar and poetics. His work, Shrutibodha, is a celebrated treatise on Sanskrit meter and poetic composition.
In the 16th century, Kavi Tulsidas, a Hindu poet-saint from the Awadhi region of India, composed the renowned Ramcharitmanas, an epic poem based on the life of Lord Rama. His poetic rendition of the Ramayana is widely revered and recited by Hindus across India.
During the 17th century, Kavi Bhushan, a Sanskrit scholar and poet from Bengal, wrote several influential works, including the Shiva-Mahimnah-Stotram, a devotional hymn dedicated to Lord Shiva.
The name Kavi has also been associated with literary figures outside of India. For instance, Kavi Narmad, born in 1833, was a prominent Gujarati poet, playwright, and social reformer who played a significant role in the literary renaissance of Gujarat during the 19th century.
While the name Kavi has its roots in ancient Sanskrit literature and Hindu mythology, it has transcended its cultural and linguistic boundaries to become a cherished name across various regions and communities, reflecting the enduring influence of Indian literary traditions.
People
Kavi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kavi 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
Kavi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kavi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 890 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kavi 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 385,117 US residents.
Is Kavi a common name?
We classify Kavi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 899 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kavi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kavi was 2024, when 72 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kavi is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kavi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 844 people with the name Kavi, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,072 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 Kavi 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 Kavi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kavi leans strongly male. 731 people counted with this name were male (86.4%), compared with 115 female bearers (13.6%). 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 Kavi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kavi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (25.1%) and White (11.7%). 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 Kavi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kavi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (417 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 Kavi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kavi a male name?
Yes, 96.3% of people registered as Kavi 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 Kavi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kavi 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 Kavi 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 Americans are named Kavi?
See how many people share the name Kavi on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.