Find out how popular the last name Pandey is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Pandey.

Pandey, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Pandey surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pandey in America

Pandey is the 16755th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pandey surname appeared 1,706 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Pandey.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pandey to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Pandey

The surname Pandey is of Indian origin, tracing its roots back to ancient times. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Pandita," which means a learned or erudite person, signifying a family with a scholarly lineage. The name is predominantly found in the northern regions of India, particularly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh.

The earliest recorded instances of the Pandey surname can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures and historical texts dating back to the 6th century CE. One of the earliest known references is in the Skanda Purana, an ancient Hindu text, which mentions a sage named Pandita, believed to be an ancestor of the Pandey clan.

During the medieval period, the Pandey surname appeared in various royal court records and inscriptions. In the 12th century, a prominent scholar named Pandey Raghunath Shastri served as the chief advisor to the king of the Gahadavala dynasty in the Kannauj region of present-day Uttar Pradesh.

In the 16th century, the Pandey surname gained further prominence when Goswami Tulsidas, the revered author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, was born into a Pandey family in the city of Varanasi. Tulsidas (1532-1623) is considered one of the greatest poets and philosophers in the Hindu tradition.

Another notable figure from the Pandey lineage was Pandit Devi Prasad Pandey (1790-1870), a renowned Sanskrit scholar and linguist from Varanasi. He authored several works on grammar, philosophy, and literature, and is credited with reviving the study of Sanskrit in the 19th century.

In the field of music, the Pandey surname is associated with the celebrated classical vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011), who hailed from a Pandey family in Karnataka. He was a recipient of the highest civilian honors in India, including the Bharat Ratna, and is regarded as a legend in the Hindustani classical music tradition.

The Pandey surname has also been prominent in the Indian freedom struggle against British colonial rule. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861-1946), a renowned educationist and political leader, was a prominent figure from the Pandey community, who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Banaras Hindu University.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pandey

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Pandey.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Pandey was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Pandey has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Pandey was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Pandey, please contact us.

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