Arnav
Arnav was given to 43 boys in 2025, #2,886 among boys’ names; 3,585 Americans have been recorded with it since 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,540 Americans named Arnav and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 12 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Arnav by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Arnav mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Arnav is “a male given name.” Its etymology gives the sense “ocean, sea” (अर्णव).
From Sanskrit अर्णव (arṇava, “ocean, sea”). Doublet of Arnab.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Arnav?
#2,886 among boys’ names, 2025
Arnav fell from #1,567 in 2015 to #2,886 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 53.7 to 25.2 per million.
249 babies in 2011, the peak
Arnav peaked in 2011, when 249 boys were given it, #855 among boys’ names. The 43 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #2,886 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 29 | #3,799 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 36 | #3,296 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 42 | #2,966 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 38 | #3,126 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 59 | #2,293 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 76 | #1,938 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 75 | #1,960 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 92 | #1,708 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 126 | #1,389 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 103 | #1,567 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 242 | #891 | 0.13 |
| 2013 | 229 | #907 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 243 | #868 | 0.13 |
| 2011 | 249 | #855 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 216 | #933 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 241 | #875 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 203 | #979 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 205 | #959 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 199 | #941 | 0.10 |
| 2005 | 179 | #971 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 194 | #894 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 158 | #1,000 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 107 | #1,265 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 70 | #1,655 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 41 | #2,329 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 28 | #2,942 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 21 | #3,493 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 10 | #5,668 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 11 | #5,206 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 8 | #6,442 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,006 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #8,292 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Arnav a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Arnav has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Arnav: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Arnav, and how old are they?
3,540 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,585 Americans ever recorded as Arnav. The median Arnav alive today is 16 years old; half are between 12 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 3,724 people named Arnav (7 women and girls, 3,717 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,322 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 30 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,330 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,180 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Arnav born?
The states with the most babies named Arnav are California, Texas and Ohio, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 9 | #1,699 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 7 | #2,095 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,281 | 0.5× |
Where Arnav is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Arnav is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1991 it was given 4.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Arnav with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,156 babies since 1880, Arnav is the most given (86% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 53 babies (81%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Arnav
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Arnav and names like it
- Compare Arnav and AarnavBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sArnav peaked in 2011.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Arnav since 1910.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Arnav.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Arnav alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.