Pritam
A Hindu name meaning beloved or cherished.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Pritam. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Pritam today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pritam births was 2010 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pritam. 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 Pritam with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Pritam. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
2010
6 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2010 SSA rank
#11,829
Tracked since 2005
Census
Pritam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 799 people with the first name Pritam, which placed it at #14,674 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
#14,674
National first-name rank
People counted
799
799 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
95.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Pritam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pritam is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.6%). 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 Pritam 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 Pritam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander95.0% · 759
- White1.9% · 15
- Two or more races1.6% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
- Black or African American0.3% · 2
Popularity
Pritam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pritam from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6 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
Pritam 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 Pritam 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 Pritam
The name Pritam originates from the Sanskrit language and has its roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit words "priya" meaning "beloved" and "atma" meaning "soul" or "self." The name Pritam, therefore, translates to "beloved soul" or "beloved self."
In Hindu scriptures and literature, the name Pritam is often used as a term of endearment between lovers or devotees and their divine beloved. It is a name that carries connotations of love, affection, and devotion. The earliest recorded references to the name can be found in ancient Sanskrit texts and poems, dating back to the 1st millennium BCE.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Pritam was Pritam Nath, a 16th-century Bengali mystic and poet. He was a disciple of the renowned saint Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and composed numerous devotional songs and poems praising the divine love between the devotee and the Supreme Lord.
Another notable figure was Pritam Singh Safeer, a 17th-century Punjabi Sufi poet and scholar. His poetry explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human experience. He is considered one of the most influential writers in the Punjabi literary tradition.
In the 19th century, Pritam Chand was a renowned Indian mathematician and astronomer. He made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and authored several treatises on topics such as trigonometry and calculus.
Moving forward in history, Pritam Singh Bhinder was a prominent Sikh leader and military commander who played a crucial role in the Indian independence movement during the early 20th century. He fought against the British Raj and was instrumental in the formation of the Akali Dal, a prominent Sikh political party.
More recently, Pritam Amrit Kaur was a distinguished Indian writer and poet who wrote extensively in the Punjabi language. Born in 1919, she was widely acclaimed for her poetic works that explored themes of love, feminism, and social justice. Her poetry collections, such as "Sunehre" and "Peedh," are considered literary masterpieces and have been translated into several languages.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have borne the name Pritam throughout history, each leaving their mark in their respective fields and contributing to the rich cultural tapestry of the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
People
Pritam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pritam as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Pritam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pritam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pritam 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Pritam a common name?
We classify Pritam as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pritam most popular?
The single biggest year for Pritam was 2010, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pritam 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 Pritam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 799 people with the name Pritam, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,674 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 Pritam 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 Pritam?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Pritam on both sides of the split. Of the 798 people counted with this name, 514 were male (64.4%) and 284 were female (35.6%). 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 Pritam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pritam is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.6%). 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 Pritam most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Pritam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.0% (759 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 Pritam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Pritam a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Pritam 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 Pritam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Pritam 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 Pritam 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 share the name Pritam?
Want to know how many people share the name Pritam? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.