Rishita
A Hindi feminine name meaning "heavenly" or "of the celestial bodies".
Name Census estimates that about 160 living Americans carry the first name Rishita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rishita today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rishita births was 2010 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rishita. 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 Rishita with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
160
~ 1 in 2,142,215 Americans
Peak year
2010
15 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2022 SSA rank
#13,299
Tracked since 2001
Census
Rishita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 287 people with the first name Rishita, which placed it at #30,385 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
#30,385
National first-name rank
People counted
287
287 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
95.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rishita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rishita is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Rishita 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 Rishita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander95.1% · 273
- White2.1% · 6
- Two or more races1.7% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 3
Popularity
Rishita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rishita from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 83 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rishita 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 Rishita 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 Rishita
The name Rishita is of Sanskrit origin, tracing its roots back to ancient India. It is a feminine name that has been in use for centuries, particularly in the Hindu community.
The name Rishita is derived from the Sanskrit word "Rishi," which means a sage or a wise person. The suffix "ta" is added to the word, making it a feminine form. Therefore, the name Rishita can be interpreted as "a wise woman" or "a female sage."
In Hindu mythology, Rishis were revered as spiritual teachers and sages who had attained a high level of wisdom and enlightenment. They were often mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures, such as the Vedas and the Upanishads, as the conveyors of divine knowledge and the custodians of sacred rituals.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Rishita can be found in the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. In this epic, there is a character named Rishita, who was a princess and the daughter of King Nala and Queen Damayanti. She was known for her beauty, intelligence, and devotion to her family.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rishita. One of the most famous was Rishita Devi, a 16th-century Hindu poet and saint from Bengal, India. She was renowned for her devotional poetry and her spiritual teachings, which focused on the worship of the Hindu deity Kali.
Another prominent figure with the name Rishita was Rishita Kapoor, a 20th-century Indian actress who appeared in several Bollywood films in the 1960s and 1970s. She was known for her beauty and her performances in movies such as "Asli Naqli" (1962) and "Ganga Ki Lahren" (1964).
In more recent times, Rishita Kar was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1941 to 2022. She was a pioneer in the field of Odissi dance and was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honors, in 2012.
Additionally, Rishita Shroff is a contemporary Indian classical singer and musician who has been performing since the late 1990s. She is known for her renditions of Hindustani classical music and has received numerous awards and accolades for her contributions to the art form.
Overall, the name Rishita has a rich and meaningful history, rooted in the ancient Sanskrit language and Hindu culture. It has been borne by notable individuals across various fields, including literature, performing arts, and spirituality, reflecting its essence of wisdom and enlightenment.
People
Rishita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rishita 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
Rishita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rishita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 160 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rishita 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 2,142,215 US residents.
Is Rishita a common name?
We classify Rishita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 162 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rishita most popular?
The single biggest year for Rishita was 2010, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rishita is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rishita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 287 people with the name Rishita, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,385 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 Rishita 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 Rishita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rishita appears almost entirely female. Of the 285 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Rishita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rishita is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Rishita most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Rishita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.1% (273 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 Rishita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rishita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rishita 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 Rishita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rishita 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 Rishita 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 common is the name Rishita?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.