Keerthana
A Sanskrit name meaning "praise, glory, or fame".
Name Census estimates that about 334 living Americans carry the first name Keerthana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keerthana today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keerthana births was 2004 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keerthana. 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 Keerthana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
334
~ 1 in 1,026,211 Americans
Peak year
2004
27 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2019 SSA rank
#10,120
Tracked since 1996
Census
Keerthana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 789 people with the first name Keerthana, which placed it at #14,812 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
#14,812
National first-name rank
People counted
789
789 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keerthana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keerthana is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.6%. The next largest groups are White (1.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.8%). 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 Keerthana 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 Keerthana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.6% · 762
- White1.4% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 4
- Black or African American0.4% · 3
- Two or more races0.4% · 3
Popularity
Keerthana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keerthana from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 176 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Keerthana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keerthana 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 Keerthana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keerthanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Keerthana, while Texas, New Jersey, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keerthana
The name Keerthana is a Hindu feminine name of Sanskrit origin, derived from the Sanskrit words "Keerth" meaning "glory" or "fame" and "Na" meaning "to give." The name translates to "one who brings glory" or "bringer of fame." It dates back to ancient Hindu scriptures and texts, and has been a popular name in India for centuries.
Keerthana is a name found in various Hindu mythological texts, including the Puranas and the Vedas. In the Mahabharata, one of the most revered Hindu epics, Keerthana is mentioned as the name of a celestial nymph or apsara. The name also appears in the Ramayana, another important Hindu epic, as the name of a heavenly dancer.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Keerthana is from the 7th century CE, when a princess of the Chalukya dynasty, which ruled parts of present-day Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in India, was named Keerthana. Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne this name, including:
1. Keerthana Devi (1050–1090 CE), a prominent Sanskrit poet and scholar from the Kalyani Chalukya dynasty.
2. Keerthana Somayaji (1275–1335 CE), a revered Hindu saint and philosopher from the Vijayanagara Empire in present-day Karnataka.
3. Keerthana Rani (1540–1600 CE), a influential queen and warrior from the Nayak dynasty of Madurai, in present-day Tamil Nadu.
4. Keerthana Sundari (1675–1745 CE), a celebrated Carnatic music composer and vocalist from the court of the Maratha ruler Shivaji.
5. Keerthana Devi Arundale (1892–1980), a renowned Theosophist, educator, and social reformer from Sri Lanka.
The name Keerthana has been associated with various virtues and qualities throughout its history, including glory, fame, success, and divine grace. It has been a popular choice for Hindu parents seeking a name that embodies these positive attributes and has a rich cultural heritage.
People
Keerthana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keerthana 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
Keerthana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keerthana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 334 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keerthana 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 1,026,211 US residents.
Is Keerthana a common name?
We classify Keerthana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 338 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keerthana most popular?
The single biggest year for Keerthana was 2004, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keerthana is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keerthana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 789 people with the name Keerthana, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,812 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 Keerthana 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 Keerthana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keerthana appears almost entirely female. Of the 783 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Keerthana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keerthana is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.6%. The next largest groups are White (1.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.8%). 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 Keerthana most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Keerthana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.6% (762 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 Keerthana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keerthana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keerthana 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 Keerthana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keerthana 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 Keerthana 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 Keerthana?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Keerthana, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.