Kunal
Kunal was given to 6 boys in 2025, #11,426 among boys’ names; 1,259 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,220 Americans named Kunal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 23 and 38.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kunal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kunal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kunal is “a male given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit कुणाल (kuṇāla).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kunal?
#11,426 among boys’ names, 2025
Kunal fell from #7,803 in 2015 to #11,426 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 5.2 to 3.5 per million.
60 babies in 1994, the peak
Kunal peaked in 1994, when 60 boys were given it, #1,548 among boys’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #11,426 | 3.5 |
| 2022 | 6 | #11,676 | 3.4 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,238 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,148 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,254 | 2.8 |
| 2018 | 8 | #9,279 | 4.4 |
| 2017 | 6 | #11,566 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 6 | #11,548 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 10 | #7,803 | 5.2 |
| 2014 | 11 | #7,330 | 5.7 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 8 | #9,286 | 4.2 |
| 2012 | 15 | #5,867 | 7.9 |
| 2011 | 14 | #6,118 | 7.4 |
| 2010 | 9 | #8,498 | 4.7 |
| 2009 | 30 | #3,601 | 15.1 |
| 2008 | 17 | #5,384 | 8.3 |
| 2007 | 19 | #4,911 | 9.2 |
| 2006 | 28 | #3,651 | 13.6 |
| 2005 | 30 | #3,351 | 15.0 |
| 2004 | 37 | #2,819 | 18.6 |
| 2003 | 34 | #2,889 | 17.2 |
| 2002 | 37 | #2,616 | 19.1 |
| 2001 | 43 | #2,323 | 22.1 |
| 2000 | 49 | #2,070 | 24.9 |
| 1999 | 54 | #1,836 | 28.1 |
| 1998 | 48 | #2,001 | 25.1 |
| 1997 | 38 | #2,242 | 20.2 |
| 1996 | 52 | #1,771 | 27.5 |
| 1995 | 31 | #2,470 | 16.3 |
| 1994 | 60 | #1,548 | 31.1 |
| 1993 | 46 | #1,836 | 23.5 |
| 1992 | 34 | #2,232 | 17.0 |
| 1991 | 53 | #1,598 | 26.2 |
| 1990 | 38 | #1,993 | 18.5 |
| 1989 | 36 | #2,006 | 18.0 |
| 1988 | 44 | #1,629 | 23.0 |
| 1987 | 45 | #1,580 | 24.1 |
| 1986 | 44 | #1,523 | 23.9 |
| 1985 | 43 | #1,535 | 23.3 |
| 1984 | 51 | #1,307 | 28.3 |
| 1983 | 51 | #1,303 | 28.5 |
| 1982 | 24 | #2,186 | 13.2 |
| 1981 | 13 | #3,326 | 7.3 |
| 1978 | 9 | #4,024 | 5.5 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,386 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kunal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kunal has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kunal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kunal, and how old are they?
1,220 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,259 Americans ever recorded as Kunal. The median Kunal alive today is 30 years old; half are between 23 and 38.
The 2020 Census counted 3,169 people named Kunal (19 women and girls, 3,150 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,206 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 13 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 633 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 492 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 77 |
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 Kunal born?
The states with the most babies named Kunal are California, New Jersey and New York, with 85% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 222 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| New Jersey | 140 | not ranked | 3.9× |
| New York | 97 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 40 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Texas | 22 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Virginia | 6 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Connecticut | 5 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Kunal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kunal is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1977 it was given 3.9 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 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 Kunal 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 1,324 babies since 1880, Kunal is the most given (95% 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 Kunal
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 Kunal and names like it
- Compare Kunal and KunaalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKunal peaked in 1994.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kunal since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Kunal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1994The year the most babies were named Kunal.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kunal alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.