Rai
A name of Sanskrit origin meaning "prosperous" or "wealthy".
Name Census estimates that about 475 living Americans carry the first name Rai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Rai today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rai births was 2022 (44 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rai. 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 Rai with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
475
~ 1 in 721,588 Americans
Peak year
2022
44 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,949
Tracked since 1952
Census
Rai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 770 people with the first name Rai, which placed it at #15,057 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
#15,057
National first-name rank
People counted
770
770 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
33.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 33.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.0%) and Hispanic (19.7%). 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 Rai 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 Rai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander33.5% · 258
- White21.0% · 162
- Hispanic or Latino19.7% · 152
- Black or African American15.8% · 122
- Two or more races9.1% · 70
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Rai
Rai is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 486 total registrations, 350 (72.0%) were male and 136 (28.0%) were female.
Rai as a male name
- Ranked #3,949 in 2024
- 28 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (36 births)
Rai as a female name
- Ranked #10,867 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rai on both sides of the split. Of the 764 people counted with this name, 447 were male (58.5%) and 317 were female (41.5%).
Popularity
Rai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rai from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 179 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
Rai 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 Rai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rais live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rai
The name Rai originates from the Sanskrit language, which dates back to ancient India around 3000 BC. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "raja," meaning "king" or "ruler." The name has its roots in Hindu mythology and culture.
In Hindu mythology, Rai is associated with the sun god Surya, who is often depicted riding a chariot drawn by seven horses. The name Rai is believed to symbolize power, strength, and authority.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rai can be found in the ancient Hindu texts, the Vedas, which date back to around 1500 BC. The name is also mentioned in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, composed between the 8th and 4th centuries BC.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rai. One of the earliest known was Rai Pithora, a Hindu ruler of the Chauhan dynasty, who lived in the 6th century AD and ruled parts of present-day Rajasthan, India.
Another prominent figure was Rai Durgavati, a brave and skilled warrior queen of the Gondwana kingdom in central India, who lived in the 16th century (c. 1524-1564). She is renowned for her courage and her resistance against the Mughal Empire.
In the 17th century, Rai Shivnabh was a celebrated poet and writer from Bihar, India, who contributed significantly to the development of the Braj Bhasha literature.
Rai Bharamall (1632-1707) was a prominent musician and songwriter from the court of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. He is credited with composing many classical ragas and contributing to the development of Hindustani classical music.
Rai Bahadur Purnima Devi (1875-1952) was a pioneering Indian social reformer and educationist who fought for women's rights and established several educational institutions for girls in Bengal.
People
Rai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 475 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rai 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 721,588 US residents.
Is Rai a common name?
We classify Rai as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 486 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rai most popular?
The single biggest year for Rai was 2022, when 44 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rai is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 770 people with the name Rai, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,057 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 Rai 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 Rai?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rai on both sides of the split. Of the 764 people counted with this name, 447 were male (58.5%) and 317 were female (41.5%). 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 Rai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 33.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.0%) and Hispanic (19.7%). 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 Rai most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Rai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 33.5% (258 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 Rai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rai a male name?
Yes, 72.0% of people registered as Rai 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 Rai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rai 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 Rai 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 Rai?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.