Chandra
Chandra was last recorded in 2023, when 8 babies were given it; 17,349 Americans have been recorded with it between 1935 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 16,200 Americans named Chandra and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 50 years old and half are between 42 and 56.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chandra by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chandra mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chandra is “a unisex given name from Sanskrit.” Its etymology gives the sense “moon” (चन्द्र).
Borrowed from Sanskrit चन्द्र (candrá, “moon”)
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chandra?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #11,389, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
753 babies in 1975, the peak
Chandra peaked in 1975, when 753 babies were given it (747 girls, #307 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 8 | #11,389 | under 0.01 |
| 2019 | 8 | #11,580 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 6 | #14,156 | under 0.01 |
| 2017 | 16 | #7,164 | 0.01 |
| 2015 | 7 | #13,295 | under 0.01 |
| 2014 | 6 | #14,959 | under 0.01 |
| 2013 | 13 | #8,688 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 10 | #10,594 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 18 | #6,912 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 7 | #13,756 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (76)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 23 | #5,928 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 22 | #6,167 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 29 | #4,981 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 39 | #3,867 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 43 | #3,463 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 41 | #3,572 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 60 | #2,641 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 53 | #2,822 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 82 | #2,047 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 76 | #2,121 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 82 | #1,913 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 118 | #1,442 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 105 | #1,534 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 125 | #1,347 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 137 | #1,244 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 151 | #1,167 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 182 | #1,015 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 199 | #962 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 250 | #820 | 0.13 |
| 1990 | 280 | #741 | 0.15 |
| 1989 | 294 | #687 | 0.16 |
| 1988 | 338 | #594 | 0.19 |
| 1987 | 365 | #548 | 0.21 |
| 1986 | 398 | #519 | 0.23 |
| 1985 | 409 | #496 | 0.24 |
| 1984 | 429 | #477 | 0.25 |
| 1983 | 462 | #445 | 0.28 |
| 1982 | 478 | #448 | 0.28 |
| 1981 | 539 | #409 | 0.32 |
| 1980 | 573 | #396 | 0.35 |
| 1979 | 556 | #391 | 0.35 |
| 1978 | 645 | #337 | 0.42 |
| 1977 | 664 | #341 | 0.43 |
| 1976 | 682 | #326 | 0.47 |
| 1975 | 747 | #307 | 0.51 |
| 1974 | 713 | #318 | 0.49 |
| 1973 | 653 | #338 | 0.45 |
| 1972 | 660 | #341 | 0.43 |
| 1971 | 683 | #356 | 0.41 |
| 1970 | 695 | #357 | 0.40 |
| 1969 | 608 | #377 | 0.36 |
| 1968 | 483 | #432 | 0.29 |
| 1967 | 405 | #470 | 0.25 |
| 1966 | 349 | #504 | 0.21 |
| 1965 | 284 | #567 | 0.16 |
| 1964 | 260 | #632 | 0.14 |
| 1963 | 229 | #665 | 0.12 |
| 1962 | 187 | #761 | 0.10 |
| 1961 | 187 | #762 | 0.09 |
| 1960 | 153 | #833 | 0.08 |
| 1959 | 181 | #755 | 0.09 |
| 1958 | 232 | #648 | 0.12 |
| 1957 | 165 | #782 | 0.08 |
| 1956 | 113 | #948 | 0.06 |
| 1955 | 79 | #1,118 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 57 | #1,317 | 0.03 |
| 1953 | 28 | #1,935 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 16 | #2,685 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 17 | #2,489 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 19 | #2,262 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 12 | #3,025 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 11 | #3,170 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,479 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,094 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,739 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,818 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chandra a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Chandra has been given almost only to girls: 66 boys in 76 years of records.
Girls and boys named Chandra: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chandra, and how old are they?
16,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 17,349 Americans ever recorded as Chandra. The median Chandra alive today is 50 years old; half are between 42 and 56.
The 2020 Census counted 19,391 people named Chandra (16,840 women and girls, 2,551 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,515 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 9 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,630 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,800 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 798 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 64 |
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 Chandra born?
The states with the most babies named Chandra are California, Texas and Georgia, with 26% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,627 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Texas | 1,372 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 845 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Illinois | 758 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 707 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 695 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 588 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 572 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 564 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Louisiana | 491 | not ranked | 1.4× |
Where Chandra is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chandra is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1935 it was given 1.9 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 Chandra 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 21,403 babies since 1880, Chandra is the most given (81% of them).
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 Chandra
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 Chandra and names like it
- Compare Chandra and ShandraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sChandra peaked in 1975.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chandra since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Chandra: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1975The year the most babies were named Chandra.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Chandra alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with CMost given first.