Krishna
A masculine Sanskrit name meaning "dark-colored" or "all-attractive".
Name Census estimates that about 4,063 living Americans carry the first name Krishna. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Krishna today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Krishna births was 2007 (123 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Krishna. 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 Krishna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Krishna sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 84,360 Americans
Peak year
2007
123 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,406
Tracked since 1957
Census
Krishna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,613 people with the first name Krishna, which placed it at #2,244 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
#2,244
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,613 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
82.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Krishna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Krishna is Asian/Pacific Islander at 82.2%. The next largest groups are White (5.6%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Krishna 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 Krishna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander82.2% · 9,547
- White5.6% · 646
- Black or African American5.1% · 593
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 415
- Two or more races3.1% · 355
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 57
Gender
Gender distribution for Krishna
Krishna is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,206 total registrations, 2,316 (55.1%) were male and 1,890 (44.9%) were female.
Krishna as a male name
- Ranked #2,406 in 2024
- 58 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (85 births)
Krishna as a female name
- Ranked #7,071 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (65 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Krishna on both sides of the split. Of the 11,606 people counted with this name, 7,272 were male (62.7%) and 4,334 were female (37.3%).
Popularity
Krishna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Krishna from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,040 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Krishna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Krishna 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 Krishna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Krishnas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, New Jersey, New York recorded the most babies named Krishna, while Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 105 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Krishna
The name Krishna originates from the Sanskrit language of ancient India, with its earliest known use dating back to the late Vedic period around the 5th century BCE. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "kṛṣṇa," meaning "black" or "dark blue," and is believed to be associated with the deity of the same name in Hindu mythology.
Krishna is a central figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred scripture that forms part of the epic. In these ancient texts, Krishna is revered as an avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu and plays a pivotal role in guiding the Pandava princes during the great war of Kurukshetra.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Krishna was Krishna Dvaipayan Vyasa, the legendary sage who is credited with compiling the Vedas and authoring the Mahabharata and the Puranas. He is believed to have lived around the 5th century BCE.
Another notable historical figure was Krishna Devaraya, the renowned emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire in southern India, who ruled from 1509 to 1529 CE. He was a great patron of literature, art, and architecture, and his reign is considered a golden age in the history of Karnataka.
In the 16th century, the Indian saint and philosopher Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, also known as Krishna Chaitanya (1486-1533 CE), played a significant role in the Bhakti movement and the spread of Vaishnavism, a tradition that reveres Vishnu and his avatars, including Krishna.
During the Indian independence movement, Krishna Varma (1887-1924) was a prominent Indian revolutionary and leader of the Ghadar Party, which advocated for India's independence from British rule.
In more recent times, Krishna Raj Kapoor (1926-1988) was a renowned Indian actor and producer who starred in several iconic Bollywood films and helped shape the Hindi film industry.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Krishna, a name that holds deep cultural and religious significance in the Indian subcontinent.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Krishna
People
Krishna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Krishna 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
Krishna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Krishna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,063 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Krishna 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 84,360 US residents.
Is Krishna a common name?
We classify Krishna as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,206 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Krishna most popular?
The single biggest year for Krishna was 2007, when 123 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Krishna is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Krishna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,613 people with the name Krishna, or 3.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,244 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 Krishna 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 Krishna?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Krishna on both sides of the split. Of the 11,606 people counted with this name, 7,272 were male (62.7%) and 4,334 were female (37.3%). 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 Krishna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Krishna is Asian/Pacific Islander at 82.2%. The next largest groups are White (5.6%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Krishna most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Krishna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.2% (9,547 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 Krishna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Krishna a male name?
Yes, 55.1% of people registered as Krishna 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 Krishna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Krishna 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 Krishna 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 Krishna as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.