Ranjit
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "he who pleases" or "colored".
Name Census estimates that about 144 living Americans carry the first name Ranjit. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ranjit today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ranjit births was 1980 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ranjit. 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 Ranjit with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
144
~ 1 in 2,380,238 Americans
Peak year
1980
10 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
1996 SSA rank
#6,377
Tracked since 1967
Census
Ranjit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,874 people with the first name Ranjit, which placed it at #5,788 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
#5,788
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,874 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ranjit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ranjit is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Ranjit 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 Ranjit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.7% · 2,721
- White1.9% · 56
- Two or more races1.4% · 41
- Black or African American0.9% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 11
Popularity
Ranjit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ranjit from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 52 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Ranjit remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ranjit 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 Ranjit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ranjits live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ranjit
Ranjit is a given name with origins in the Sanskrit language. It is derived from the Sanskrit words "ranj" meaning "to delight or please" and "jit" meaning "victorious". The name can be interpreted to mean "one who delights through victory".
The name Ranjit has its roots in ancient India and can be traced back to the 6th century CE. It was a popular name among the ruling classes and warrior castes during the medieval period in the Indian subcontinent.
One of the earliest known references to the name Ranjit is found in the Harshacharita, a 7th-century Sanskrit biographical work by the poet Banabhatta. It mentions a king named Ranjit who ruled over a region in present-day Rajasthan.
In the 18th century, Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) was the founder and maharaja of the Sikh Empire in the Punjab region. He is remembered as a skilled military leader and credited with unifying the Punjab into a powerful kingdom.
Another notable figure with the name Ranjit was Ranjit Sinha (1937-2008), an Indian diplomat who served as the country's Foreign Secretary from 1994 to 1996.
Ranjit Desai (1928-1992) was an acclaimed Indian author and playwright who wrote extensively in Marathi and English. His works explored themes of urban life and the human condition.
In the field of sports, Ranjit Bhatia (born 1953) is a former Indian cricketer who played as a right-handed batsman for the Indian national team in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ranjit Mohite-Patil (born 1945) is an Indian businessman and politician who served as a member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, representing the Nationalist Congress Party.
People
Ranjit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ranjit 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
Ranjit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ranjit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 144 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ranjit 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 2,380,238 US residents.
Is Ranjit a common name?
We classify Ranjit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 153 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ranjit most popular?
The single biggest year for Ranjit was 1980, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ranjit is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ranjit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,874 people with the name Ranjit, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,788 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 Ranjit 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 Ranjit?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ranjit on both sides of the split. Of the 2,879 people counted with this name, 1,961 were male (68.1%) and 918 were female (31.9%). 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 Ranjit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ranjit is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Ranjit most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ranjit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.7% (2,721 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 Ranjit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ranjit a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ranjit 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 Ranjit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ranjit 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 Ranjit 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 are called Ranjit?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.