Asha
Asha was given to 160 girls in 2025, #1,373 among girls’ names; 9,127 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,960 Americans named Asha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 13 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Asha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Asha mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Asha is “a female given name from Sanskrit used in India.” Its etymology gives the sense “hope, wish” (आशा).
Borrowed from Sanskrit आशा (āśā, “hope, wish”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Asha?
#1,373 among girls’ names, 2025
Asha fell from #1,311 in 2015 to #1,373 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born held at 0.10 per 1,000.
250 babies in 2000, the peak
Asha peaked in 2000, when 250 girls were given it, #881 among girls’ names. The 160 births of 2025 are 64% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 160 | #1,373 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 201 | #1,188 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 169 | #1,339 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 135 | #1,575 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 161 | #1,370 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 147 | #1,462 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 192 | #1,219 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 200 | #1,192 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 210 | #1,172 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 187 | #1,287 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 181 | #1,311 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 202 | #1,206 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 191 | #1,248 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 212 | #1,158 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 201 | #1,196 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 171 | #1,363 | 0.10 |
| 2009 | 187 | #1,292 | 0.10 |
| 2008 | 204 | #1,236 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 215 | #1,182 | 0.11 |
| 2006 | 197 | #1,222 | 0.10 |
| 2005 | 196 | #1,174 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 218 | #1,062 | 0.12 |
| 2003 | 237 | #977 | 0.13 |
| 2002 | 206 | #1,044 | 0.11 |
| 2001 | 210 | #1,024 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 250 | #881 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 224 | #934 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 249 | #855 | 0.14 |
| 1997 | 205 | #963 | 0.12 |
| 1996 | 220 | #893 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 216 | #878 | 0.12 |
| 1994 | 227 | #862 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 203 | #929 | 0.11 |
| 1992 | 237 | #837 | 0.13 |
| 1991 | 197 | #958 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 184 | #992 | 0.10 |
| 1989 | 239 | #794 | 0.13 |
| 1988 | 151 | #1,052 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 134 | #1,116 | 0.08 |
| 1986 | 112 | #1,225 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 98 | #1,338 | 0.06 |
| 1984 | 90 | #1,343 | 0.05 |
| 1983 | 109 | #1,190 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 100 | #1,278 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 95 | #1,320 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 101 | #1,273 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 91 | #1,350 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 77 | #1,476 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 81 | #1,382 | 0.05 |
| 1976 | 54 | #1,748 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 59 | #1,641 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 52 | #1,734 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 47 | #1,805 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 46 | #1,832 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 40 | #2,067 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 19 | #3,318 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 20 | #3,013 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 15 | #3,462 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 17 | #3,093 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,514 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,054 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #6,659 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Asha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Asha has been given almost only to girls: 58 boys in 62 years of records.
Girls and boys named Asha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Asha, and how old are they?
8,960 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 9,127 Americans ever recorded as Asha. The median Asha alive today is 24 years old; half are between 13 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 13,207 people named Asha (13,047 women and girls, 160 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,056 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 686 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,570 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,360 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,350 |
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 Asha born?
The states with the most babies named Asha are California, New York and Texas, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 28 | #973 | 0.9× |
| New York | 17 | #911 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,810 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,088 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,131 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,914 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,252 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,051 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,477 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,469 | 0.8× |
Where Asha is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Asha is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1963 it was given 1.5 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 girls’ 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 Asha 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 51,957 babies since 1880, Asha is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 160 of their 1,373 babies (12%), 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 Asha
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 Asha and names like it
- Compare Asha and AishaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAsha peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Asha since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Asha: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Asha.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Asha alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.