Keshav
Masculine name of Hindu origin meaning "the lord who has long hair".
Name Census estimates that about 1,343 living Americans carry the first name Keshav. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Keshav today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keshav births was 2023 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keshav. 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 Keshav with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Keshav is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 255,215 Americans
Peak year
2023
65 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,507
Tracked since 1987
Census
Keshav in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,633 people with the first name Keshav, which placed it at #8,774 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
#8,774
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,633 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keshav
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keshav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.6%) and White (2.9%). 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 Keshav 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 Keshav at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander91.4% · 1,493
- Two or more races3.6% · 58
- White2.9% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 14
- Black or African American0.6% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 10
Popularity
Keshav: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keshav 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 532 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Keshav remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keshav 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 Keshav during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keshavs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Keshav, while Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keshav
The name Keshav is of Hindu origin and is believed to have originated in ancient India. It is a Sanskrit name derived from the words "Kesha," meaning hair, and "Va," meaning having or possessing. Thus, the name Keshav can be interpreted as "one with beautiful hair" or "long-haired one."
The name Keshav has deep roots in Hindu mythology and is one of the many names associated with Lord Vishnu, the preserver and protector deity in the Hindu trinity. In the sacred Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is referred to as Keshav.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Keshav can be found in the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, which is dated between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. In this epic, Keshav is mentioned as one of the many names of Lord Krishna.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Keshav. One of the most famous was Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940), the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu nationalist organization in India.
Another notable figure was Keshav Prasad Mishra (1918-2006), an Indian politician and freedom fighter who served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, from 1962 to 1963.
In the realm of literature, Keshav Pandurang Sathe (1919-2001) was a renowned Marathi writer, poet, and playwright who made significant contributions to Marathi literature. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honor, in 1998.
Keshav Krishnarao Bhole (1914-1990) was an Indian mathematician and statistician who made notable contributions to the field of probability theory and stochastic processes.
Lastly, Keshav Prasad Chandra (1820-1901) was a renowned Indian historian and writer who authored several books on Indian history and culture, including "The Modern History of India" and "The Travels of a Hindu."
While the name Keshav is primarily associated with Hinduism, it has transcended religious boundaries and is used by people of various faiths and backgrounds, particularly in India and other parts of South Asia.
People
Keshav + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keshav 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
Keshav: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keshav?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keshav 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 255,215 US residents.
Is Keshav a common name?
We classify Keshav as "Rare". It ranks above 91.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,357 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keshav most popular?
The single biggest year for Keshav was 2023, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keshav is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keshav in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,633 people with the name Keshav, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,774 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 Keshav 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 Keshav?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keshav appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,635 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Keshav?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keshav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.6%) and White (2.9%). 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 Keshav most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Keshav in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (1,493 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 Keshav in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keshav a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keshav 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 Keshav still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keshav 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 Keshav 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 Keshav?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.