Ram
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "source of all joy".
Name Census estimates that about 1,054 living Americans carry the first name Ram. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ram today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ram births was 2024 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ram. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 325,194 Americans
Peak year
2024
69 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,144
Tracked since 1970
Popularity
Ram: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ram from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 349 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ram remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ram 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 Ram during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, Texas, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Ram, while Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ram
The name Ram has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that was the root of many modern Indian languages. It is derived from the Sanskrit word 'rama', meaning "pleasing" or "delightful". The name has been popular in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.
Ram is a prominent name in Hindu mythology and religious scriptures. The most famous bearer of this name is Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. Rama is the protagonist of the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, which is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and an important text in Hinduism.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ram can be found in the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, dating back to around 1500-500 BCE. The Rig Veda, the oldest of the four Vedas, mentions the name Ram in several hymns.
In the epic Ramayana, Rama is portrayed as the ideal man, embodying virtues such as devotion, duty, and righteousness. The Ramayana is believed to have been composed by the sage Valmiki around the 5th or 4th century BCE.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals with the first name Ram. Ramanujacharya (1017-1137 CE), a Hindu philosopher and theologian, was a significant figure in the Vedanta tradition and played a crucial role in the Bhakti movement. Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833 CE) was an influential Indian philosopher, reformer, and the founder of the Brahmo Samaj movement.
Other famous bearers of the name include Ram Prasad Bismil (1897-1927), an Indian revolutionary who fought against British rule, and Ram Vilas Paswan (1946-2020), a prominent Indian politician and former Union Minister in the Government of India. Ram Sharan Sharma (1919-2011) was an eminent Indian historian and indologist known for his contributions to the study of ancient Indian history and culture.
People
Ram + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ram 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
Ram: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ram?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,054 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ram 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 325,194 US residents.
Is Ram a common name?
We classify Ram as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,074 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ram most popular?
The single biggest year for Ram was 2024, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ram is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ram a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ram 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.
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.