Aryan
Aryan was given to 275 boys in 2025, #872 among boys’ names; 8,854 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,760 Americans named Aryan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 7 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aryan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Aryan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Aryan is “a male given name of Indian usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “noble; noble one” (आर्य).
Originally from Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) and + -n. The Sanskrit word is an autonym originally from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas. Borrowed into English in the 19th century, at first as a term for the Indo-Iranian languages, and later partly extended to the Indo-European languages and peoples following a theory by Friedrich Schlegel that connected the Indo-Iranian words arya/ā́rya with German Ehre (“honor”) and some older Germanic names, thus assuming that it was the original Indo-European autonym meaning “the honorable people”. The original meaning of the Indo-Iranian autonym and its possible Indo-European origin/cognates are disputed. The same Proto-Indo-Iranian root is the ultimate source of the country name Iran. Also the doublet of Arya.
/ˈæɹiən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Aryan?
#872 among boys’ names, 2025
Aryan fell from #699 in 2015 to #872 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.19 to 0.16 per 1,000.
433 babies in 2007, the peak
Aryan peaked in 2007, when 433 babies were given it (406 boys, #613 among boys’ names). The 280 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 65% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 275 | #872 | 0.16 |
| 2024 | 320 | #785 | 0.19 |
| 2023 | 355 | #742 | 0.21 |
| 2022 | 302 | #820 | 0.17 |
| 2021 | 312 | #788 | 0.18 |
| 2020 | 271 | #841 | 0.16 |
| 2019 | 342 | #714 | 0.19 |
| 2018 | 300 | #773 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 321 | #742 | 0.17 |
| 2016 | 345 | #708 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 360 | #699 | 0.19 |
| 2014 | 317 | #747 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 342 | #698 | 0.18 |
| 2012 | 352 | #671 | 0.19 |
| 2011 | 342 | #689 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 326 | #714 | 0.17 |
| 2009 | 298 | #762 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 355 | #680 | 0.17 |
| 2007 | 406 | #613 | 0.20 |
| 2006 | 326 | #689 | 0.16 |
| 2005 | 307 | #681 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 321 | #644 | 0.16 |
| 2003 | 240 | #745 | 0.12 |
| 2002 | 188 | #871 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 114 | #1,189 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 39 | #2,426 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 37 | #2,401 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 28 | #2,854 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 28 | #2,750 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 27 | #2,748 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 24 | #2,921 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 20 | #3,330 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 28 | #2,576 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 20 | #3,224 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 19 | #3,220 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 23 | #2,778 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 17 | #3,326 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 9 | #4,809 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,490 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 9 | #4,480 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 10 | #4,063 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,385 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,537 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,533 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,852 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Aryan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,854 Americans recorded as Aryan, 8% are girls and 92% boys. In 2025 it went to 5 girls and 275 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Aryan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aryan, and how old are they?
8,760 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,854 Americans ever recorded as Aryan. The median Aryan alive today is 13 years old; half are between 7 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 6,988 people named Aryan (569 women and girls, 6,419 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,938 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 305 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,040 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,410 |
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 Aryan born?
The states with the most babies named Aryan are California, Texas and New York, with 53% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 56 | #544 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 46 | #649 | 0.9× |
| New York | 21 | #694 | 1.4× |
| New Jersey | 18 | #429 | 2.7× |
| Florida | 15 | #913 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 14 | #636 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 13 | #713 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 9 | #692 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #921 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #944 | 0.6× |
Where Aryan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aryan is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1978 it was given 2.7 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 Aryan 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 56,003 babies since 1880, Aryan is the second most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 280 of their 1,145 babies (24%), again the second 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 Aryan
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 Aryan and names like it
- Compare Aryan and AronBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAryan peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aryan since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Aryan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Aryan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.