Pooja
Pooja was last recorded in 2018, when 5 babies were given it; 1,981 Americans have been recorded with it between 1976 and 2018 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,940 Americans named Pooja and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 25 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Pooja by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Pooja mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Pooja is “a female given name from Hindi.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit पूजा (pūjā).
/ˈpuːdʒə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Pooja?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,551, in 2018; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
117 babies in 1997, the peak
Pooja peaked in 1997, when 117 girls were given it, #1,425 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 5 | #17,551 | 2.9 |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,478 | 3.5 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,609 | 4.5 |
| 2015 | 5 | #18,486 | 2.8 |
| 2014 | 10 | #10,756 | 5.6 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,085 | 6.3 |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,155 | 4.5 |
| 2011 | 15 | #8,106 | 8.5 |
| 2010 | 18 | #7,146 | 10.1 |
| 2009 | 16 | #7,977 | 8.7 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 27 | #5,397 | 14.3 |
| 2007 | 27 | #5,347 | 14.0 |
| 2006 | 35 | #4,237 | 18.4 |
| 2005 | 56 | #2,924 | 30.3 |
| 2004 | 53 | #2,985 | 28.9 |
| 2003 | 70 | #2,385 | 38.3 |
| 2002 | 71 | #2,298 | 39.5 |
| 2001 | 68 | #2,347 | 37.8 |
| 2000 | 78 | #2,096 | 43.0 |
| 1999 | 114 | #1,509 | 64.3 |
| 1998 | 91 | #1,747 | 51.5 |
| 1997 | 117 | #1,425 | 67.2 |
| 1996 | 113 | #1,460 | 64.5 |
| 1995 | 91 | #1,631 | 51.7 |
| 1994 | 100 | #1,549 | 56.0 |
| 1993 | 94 | #1,619 | 52.0 |
| 1992 | 104 | #1,517 | 56.4 |
| 1991 | 77 | #1,844 | 41.1 |
| 1990 | 56 | #2,276 | 29.5 |
| 1989 | 49 | #2,392 | 26.6 |
| 1988 | 47 | #2,352 | 26.4 |
| 1987 | 45 | #2,351 | 25.9 |
| 1986 | 39 | #2,546 | 22.7 |
| 1985 | 41 | #2,427 | 23.8 |
| 1984 | 43 | #2,286 | 25.5 |
| 1983 | 32 | #2,763 | 19.2 |
| 1982 | 26 | #3,315 | 15.4 |
| 1981 | 27 | #3,219 | 16.2 |
| 1980 | 20 | #3,953 | 12.0 |
| 1979 | 26 | #3,218 | 16.2 |
| 1978 | 19 | #3,878 | 12.4 |
| 1977 | 15 | #4,579 | 9.8 |
| 1976 | 8 | #7,086 | 5.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Pooja a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Pooja has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Pooja: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Pooja, and how old are they?
1,940 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,981 Americans ever recorded as Pooja. The median Pooja alive today is 30 years old; half are between 25 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 6,697 people named Pooja (6,689 women and girls, 8 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,952 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.4 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 | 84 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 960 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 853 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 45 |
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 Pooja born?
The states with the most babies named Pooja are New Jersey, California and New York, with 72% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 296 | not ranked | 5.1× |
| California | 261 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New York | 189 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 99 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Texas | 53 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Michigan | 46 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 36 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Florida | 17 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Georgia | 17 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Massachusetts | 17 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Pooja is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Pooja is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1976 it was given 5.1 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 Pooja 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 2,799 babies since 1880, Pooja is the most given (71% 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 Pooja
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 Pooja and names like it
- Compare Pooja and PujaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sPooja peaked in 1997.
- New Jersey’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Pooja since 1910.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Pooja.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Pooja alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with PMost given first.