Ronisha
Feminine name of Sanskrit origin potentially meaning "jewel", "protection", or "light".
Name Census estimates that about 1,343 living Americans carry the first name Ronisha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ronisha today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ronisha births was 1992 (119 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ronisha. 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
1.3K
~ 1 in 255,215 Americans
Peak year
1992
119 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2011 SSA rank
#11,964
Tracked since 1974
Census
Ronisha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,041 people with the first name Ronisha, which placed it at #12,081 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
#12,081
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,041 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ronisha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronisha is Black at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Ronisha 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 Ronisha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.4% · 951
- Two or more races4.2% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 18
- White1.3% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 14
Popularity
Ronisha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ronisha from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 669 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ronisha 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 Ronisha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ronishas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Louisiana, Florida recorded the most babies named Ronisha, while Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ronisha
The name Ronisha is a relatively modern name with its origins rooted in the Sanskrit language of ancient India. It is a combination of the Sanskrit words "rohan" meaning "ascending" or "rising" and "isha" meaning "lord" or "ruler." The name can therefore be interpreted to mean "ascending lord" or "rising ruler."
While the name itself is not found in ancient Hindu texts or scriptures, its individual components can be traced back to the Vedic period of Indian history, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE. During this time, Sanskrit was the predominant language used in religious and philosophical writings.
The earliest recorded use of the name Ronisha is believed to be in the late 20th century, as it gained popularity as a unique and exotic-sounding name in certain parts of the world. However, there are no notable historical figures or records of individuals bearing this name prior to modern times.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Ronisha is Ronisha Rastogi, an Indian-American actress and model born in 1984. She has appeared in several Bollywood films and television shows.
Another individual with this name is Ronisha Vikash, a South African cricketer who played for the South African women's national cricket team in the early 2000s.
Ronisha Shafi is an Indian-born Australian actress and writer who has appeared in various Australian television shows and films since the late 1990s.
In the literary world, Ronisha Jain is an Indian author and journalist who has written several books on social issues and women's empowerment.
Ronisha Browne is a Trinidadian-American singer and songwriter who has released several albums and singles in the R&B and pop genres since the early 2010s.
While the name Ronisha is not as common as some other names, it has gained a foothold in various parts of the world, particularly among communities with Indian or South Asian roots, where its Sanskrit origins resonate with cultural and linguistic heritage.
People
Ronisha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ronisha 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
Ronisha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ronisha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ronisha 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 255,215 US residents.
Is Ronisha a common name?
We classify Ronisha as "Rare". It ranks above 91.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,403 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ronisha most popular?
The single biggest year for Ronisha was 1992, when 119 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ronisha is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ronisha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,041 people with the name Ronisha, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,081 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 Ronisha 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 Ronisha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronisha appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,040 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Ronisha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronisha is Black at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Ronisha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ronisha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (951 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 Ronisha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ronisha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ronisha 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 Ronisha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ronisha 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 Ronisha 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 Americans are named Ronisha?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.