Krsna
An ancient Sanskrit name meaning "all-attractive" or "the one who attracts all".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Krsna. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Krsna today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Krsna births was 1983 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Krsna. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Krsna. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
1983
5 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2002 SSA rank
#11,715
Tracked since 1983
Popularity
Krsna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Krsna from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Krsna 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 Krsna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Krsna
The name Krsna has its origins in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of the Indian subcontinent. It is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit root word "krsh," which means "to attract" or "to draw towards oneself." The name Krsna first appeared in ancient Hindu scriptures and texts, particularly the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, which date back to around the 5th century BCE.
Krsna is the principal avatar or incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, and is widely revered in various Hindu traditions. The Bhagavad Gita, one of the most revered Hindu scriptures, depicts Krsna as the Supreme Being who imparts divine wisdom to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Krsna can be found in the Chandogya Upanishad, an ancient Hindu philosophical text dating back to the 8th or 7th century BCE. The text mentions Krsna Devakiputra, referring to Krsna as the son of Devaki.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures bearing the name Krsna. One of the most famous was Krsna Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, who is traditionally credited as the compiler of the Vedas and the author of the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. He is believed to have lived around the 5th or 4th century BCE.
Another prominent figure was Krsna Chaitanya, a 15th-century Indian mystic and the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition within Hinduism. Born in 1486 in Bengal, he is revered as an incarnation of Krsna and is known for his devotional love and teachings.
In the 16th century, Krsna Dasa Kaviraja was a renowned poet and scholar who wrote the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a biographical account of Chaitanya's life and teachings. He lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Krsna Saraswati, born in 1835, was a prominent Hindu spiritual leader and the founder of the Shri Swaminarayan Sampraday, a Hindu religious movement. He played a significant role in reviving and propagating the teachings of the 19th-century Hindu mystic Swaminarayan.
In the 20th century, Krsna Menon was an influential Indian statesman and diplomat who served as the first High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom and later as the Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He was born in 1897 and passed away in 1974.
People
Krsna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Krsna 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
Krsna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Krsna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Krsna 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Krsna a common name?
We classify Krsna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Krsna most popular?
The single biggest year for Krsna was 1983, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Krsna is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Krsna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Krsna a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Krsna 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 Krsna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Krsna 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 Krsna 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Krsna?
Want to know how many Americans are named Krsna? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.