Yogi
An Indian masculine name derived from the Sanskrit word "yoga", meaning "one who practices yoga".
Name Census estimates that about 211 living Americans carry the first name Yogi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yogi today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yogi births was 2019 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yogi. 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 Yogi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
211
~ 1 in 1,624,428 Americans
Peak year
2019
18 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,926
Tracked since 1953
Census
Yogi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 479 people with the first name Yogi, which placed it at #21,270 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
#21,270
National first-name rank
People counted
479
479 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
55.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yogi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yogi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.5%. The next largest groups are White (26.9%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Yogi 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 Yogi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander55.5% · 266
- White26.9% · 129
- Black or African American7.7% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 25
- Two or more races2.9% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 8
Popularity
Yogi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yogi from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 81 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yogi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yogi 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 Yogi 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 Yogi
The name Yogi has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the word "yoga," which means "to unite" or "to join." The earliest known references to the word "yoga" can be found in the Upanishads, a collection of ancient Hindu philosophical texts that date back to around the 8th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Yogi can be found in the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture that is believed to have been composed between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE. In this text, the term "yogi" is used to refer to a practitioner of yoga, or someone who is on the path of spiritual enlightenment.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who have borne the name Yogi. One of the most famous is Yogi Adityanath, an Indian Hindu monk and the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India. He was born in 1972 and has been a prominent figure in the Hindu nationalist movement.
Another notable Yogi is Yogi Berra, an American baseball player and manager who played for the New York Yankees from 1946 to 1963. He was born in 1925 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history. Berra is also known for his humorous malapropisms, which are often referred to as "Yogi-isms."
Yogi Bhajan, born Harbhajan Singh Khalsa in 1929, was an Indian-American spiritual teacher who introduced Kundalini Yoga to the Western world in the late 1960s. He played a significant role in the spread of yoga and meditation practices in the United States.
Yogi Ferrell is an American professional basketball player who was born in 1993. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers and has since played in the NBA for several teams, including the Dallas Mavericks and the Sacramento Kings.
Yogi Roth, born in 1942, is an American filmmaker and multimedia artist known for his experimental and avant-garde works. He has been a prominent figure in the underground film scene since the 1960s and has influenced countless artists and filmmakers.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Yogi, a name deeply rooted in the ancient spiritual traditions of India and the practice of yoga.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Yogi
People
Yogi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yogi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yogi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yogi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 211 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yogi 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 1,624,428 US residents.
Is Yogi a common name?
We classify Yogi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 221 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yogi most popular?
The single biggest year for Yogi was 2019, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yogi is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yogi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 479 people with the name Yogi, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,270 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 Yogi 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 Yogi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yogi leans strongly male. 417 people counted with this name were male (86.5%), compared with 65 female bearers (13.5%). 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 Yogi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yogi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 55.5%. The next largest groups are White (26.9%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Yogi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yogi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.5% (266 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 Yogi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yogi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yogi 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 Yogi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yogi 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 Yogi 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 share the name Yogi?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.