Sohil
A masculine Indian name of Hindi origin meaning "pleasant" or "handsome".
Name Census estimates that about 120 living Americans carry the first name Sohil. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sohil today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sohil births was 2000 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sohil. 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 Sohil with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
120
~ 1 in 2,856,286 Americans
Peak year
2000
13 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2021 SSA rank
#10,622
Tracked since 1995
Census
Sohil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 346 people with the first name Sohil, which placed it at #26,749 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
#26,749
National first-name rank
People counted
346
346 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
87.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sohil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sohil is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.2%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Sohil 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 Sohil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander87.6% · 303
- White9.2% · 32
- Two or more races2.0% · 7
- Black or African American0.6% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Sohil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sohil from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 71 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sohil 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 Sohil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sohils live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sohil
The name Sohil is of Persian origin, derived from the Persian word "sohil," meaning "shore" or "coast." This name gained popularity during the Middle Ages in regions of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sohil can be found in the epic Persian poem, Shahnameh, written by the renowned poet Ferdowsi in the late 10th century. In this literary masterpiece, Sohil is mentioned as the name of a character, suggesting its usage during that era.
The name Sohil has been associated with various historical figures throughout the centuries. One notable individual was Sohil al-Din Mahmud Shah, a 13th-century ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in India. He reigned from 1266 to 1287 CE and was known for his patronage of art and architecture.
Another prominent figure bearing the name Sohil was Sohil Khan, a 17th-century Mughal military commander and governor of Bengal during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb. He played a crucial role in suppressing revolts and consolidating Mughal control over the region.
In the 19th century, Sohil Bukhari was a renowned Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic from Afghanistan. He authored several works on Islamic jurisprudence and spirituality, contributing significantly to the intellectual discourse of his time.
Moving into the modern era, Sohil Khan was a celebrated Pakistani cricketer who played for the national team in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a skilled all-rounder and represented Pakistan in several Test matches and One Day Internationals.
Sohil Anwar, born in 1975, is a prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist. He has been actively involved in advocating for civil liberties and has worked on numerous high-profile cases related to human rights violations in Pakistan.
People
Sohil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sohil as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sohil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sohil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 120 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sohil 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 2,856,286 US residents.
Is Sohil a common name?
We classify Sohil as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 122 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sohil most popular?
The single biggest year for Sohil was 2000, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sohil is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sohil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 346 people with the name Sohil, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,749 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 Sohil 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 Sohil?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sohil leans strongly male. 341 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 6 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Sohil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sohil is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.2%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Sohil most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Sohil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.6% (303 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 Sohil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sohil a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sohil 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 Sohil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sohil 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 Sohil 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 Sohil?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Sohil, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.