Niti
A Sanskrit feminine name meaning "guidance" or "policy".
Name Census estimates that about 74 living Americans carry the first name Niti. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Niti today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Niti births was 1993 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Niti. 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 Niti with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Niti. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
74
~ 1 in 4,631,815 Americans
Peak year
1993
9 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2017 SSA rank
#17,737
Tracked since 1977
Census
Niti in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 467 people with the first name Niti, which placed it at #21,646 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
#21,646
National first-name rank
People counted
467
467 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Niti
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niti is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Hispanic (1.1%). 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 Niti 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 Niti at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.2% · 454
- White1.7% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 5
Popularity
Niti: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Niti from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 25 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Niti remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Niti 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 Niti 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 Niti
The name Niti has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. It is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word "niti," which means "ethics," "moral conduct," or "guidelines for proper behavior." This suggests that the name was initially associated with virtues, wisdom, and righteousness.
In Hindu mythology, Niti is also one of the names attributed to the goddess Saraswati, who is revered as the embodiment of knowledge, arts, and learning. The name is mentioned in various ancient Hindu scriptures, including the Vedas and the Upanishads, which date back to around 1500-500 BCE.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Niti was Niti Sataka, an ancient Indian philosopher and scholar who lived around the 3rd century BCE. He is known for his influential work on ethics and moral philosophy, titled "Niti Sataka," which means "Hundred Verses on Moral Instruction."
Another notable figure with this name was Niti Vinod, a 17th-century Indian poet and scholar from Bengal. He is renowned for his literary works, particularly his translations of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata into Bengali.
In the 19th century, Niti Shastri was a prominent Indian scholar and linguist who made significant contributions to the study of Sanskrit literature and grammar. He was born in 1824 and played a crucial role in the revival of Sanskrit education in India during the British colonial period.
Niti Bhan was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1923 to 1959. She is credited with popularizing and preserving the Kathak dance form, one of the eight classical dance styles of India.
Niti Raj, born in 1958, is an Indian classical vocalist and musician who has performed extensively both nationally and internationally. She is particularly known for her expertise in the Khayal and Thumri styles of Hindustani classical music.
It is worth noting that while the name Niti has its roots in Sanskrit and Indian culture, it has gained popularity across various regions and communities worldwide, transcending its original cultural boundaries.
People
Niti + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Niti as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Niti: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Niti?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 74 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Niti 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 4,631,815 US residents.
Is Niti a common name?
We classify Niti as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 76 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Niti most popular?
The single biggest year for Niti was 1993, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Niti is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Niti in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 467 people with the name Niti, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,646 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 Niti 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 Niti?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Niti leans strongly female. 445 people counted with this name were female (93.9%), compared with 29 male bearers (6.1%). 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 Niti?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niti is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.2%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Hispanic (1.1%). 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 Niti most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Niti in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.2% (454 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 Niti in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Niti a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Niti 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 Niti still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Niti 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 Niti 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 Niti?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.