Sumedha
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "intelligent" or "wise".
Name Census estimates that about 167 living Americans carry the first name Sumedha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sumedha today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sumedha births was 2005 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sumedha. 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
167
~ 1 in 2,052,421 Americans
Peak year
2005
17 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,638
Tracked since 1992
Popularity
Sumedha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sumedha from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 97 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Sumedha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sumedha 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 Sumedha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sumedhas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sumedha
The name Sumedha has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that was once widely spoken across the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit words "su," meaning "good" or "auspicious," and "medha," meaning "intellect" or "wisdom." Together, the name Sumedha can be translated to mean "possessing a good intellect" or "endowed with wisdom."
In Hindu mythology, Sumedha is also the name of a sage who is believed to have been an incarnation of the Buddha during one of his previous lives. According to Buddhist texts, the sage Sumedha made a vow under a previous Buddha to become a fully enlightened being himself, which ultimately led to his rebirth as Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha.
The earliest recorded use of the name Sumedha can be traced back to ancient Sanskrit texts and inscriptions from the Indian subcontinent, dating back to the first millennium BCE. Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore this name.
One of the earliest known individuals named Sumedha was a Buddhist scholar and commentator who lived in India during the 5th century CE. He is known for his influential commentary on the Abhidhamma, a collection of philosophical texts in the Buddhist canon.
Another notable figure was Sumedha Devi, a 13th-century queen of the Chauhan dynasty in present-day Rajasthan, India. She is celebrated for her patronage of the arts and her role in the construction of several temples and monuments during her reign.
In more recent times, Sumedha Gupta was an Indian philosopher and writer who lived from 1922 to 2012. She was a prominent figure in the modern Indian philosophical tradition and authored several books on topics such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indian culture.
Sumedha Mudgalkar, born in 1923, was a renowned Indian classical singer and Padma Bhushan awardee, known for her contributions to the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana of Hindustani classical music.
Sumedha Ravi is a contemporary Indian actress and dancer who has appeared in several Bollywood films and television shows since the early 2000s. She is also known for her work in promoting Indian classical dance forms.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Sumedha, a name that has its roots in the ancient Sanskrit language and carries connotations of wisdom and intellect.
People
Sumedha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sumedha 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
Sumedha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sumedha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 167 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sumedha 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 2,052,421 US residents.
Is Sumedha a common name?
We classify Sumedha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 169 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sumedha most popular?
The single biggest year for Sumedha was 2005, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sumedha is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sumedha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sumedha 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.
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.