Nikhil
Nikhil was given to 44 boys in 2025, #2,868 among boys’ names; 5,404 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,290 Americans named Nikhil and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 15 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nikhil by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nikhil mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nikhil is “a male given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit निखिल (nikhila).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nikhil?
#2,868 among boys’ names, 2025
Nikhil fell from #1,393 in 2015 to #2,868 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 64.7 to 25.8 per million.
261 babies in 2007, the peak
Nikhil peaked in 2007, when 261 boys were given it, #823 among boys’ names. The 44 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 44 | #2,868 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 53 | #2,547 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 44 | #2,876 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 54 | #2,546 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 68 | #2,126 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 70 | #2,039 | 0.04 |
| 2019 | 65 | #2,183 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 79 | #1,894 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 90 | #1,732 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 93 | #1,691 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 124 | #1,393 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 173 | #1,107 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 156 | #1,158 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 158 | #1,158 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 190 | #1,016 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 192 | #1,016 | 0.10 |
| 2009 | 244 | #865 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 241 | #881 | 0.12 |
| 2007 | 261 | #823 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 223 | #886 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 209 | #876 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 204 | #863 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 201 | #858 | 0.10 |
| 2002 | 182 | #892 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 193 | #841 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 183 | #865 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 188 | #811 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 145 | #958 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 129 | #997 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 122 | #1,021 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 100 | #1,146 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 86 | #1,260 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 91 | #1,173 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 93 | #1,140 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 73 | #1,315 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 46 | #1,741 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 52 | #1,557 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 62 | #1,312 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 67 | #1,182 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 49 | #1,427 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 46 | #1,470 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 37 | #1,623 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 37 | #1,619 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 28 | #1,973 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 25 | #2,125 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 23 | #2,263 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 21 | #2,348 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 26 | #1,949 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 11 | #3,528 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 14 | #2,913 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 12 | #3,184 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,498 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,955 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,573 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nikhil a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nikhil has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nikhil: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nikhil, and how old are they?
5,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,404 Americans ever recorded as Nikhil. The median Nikhil alive today is 21 years old; half are between 15 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 8,509 people named Nikhil (15 women and girls, 8,494 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,007 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 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 | 122 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 968 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,090 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,100 |
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 Nikhil born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 9 | #1,783 | 1.5× |
| New York | 5 | #1,966 | 1.4× |
Where Nikhil is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nikhil is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1971 it was given 2.8 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 Nikhil with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nikhil
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 Nikhil and names like it
- Compare Nikhil and JomarBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNikhil peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nikhil since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Nikhil: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Nikhil.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nikhil alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.