Puja
Puja was last recorded in 2015, when 7 babies were given it; 818 Americans have been recorded with it between 1975 and 2015 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Puja by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Puja mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Puja is “a female given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit पूजा (pūjā).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Puja?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #14,164, in 2015; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
44 babies in 1988, the peak
Puja peaked in 1988, when 44 girls were given it, #2,474 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #14,164 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 6 | #16,080 | 3.4 |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,163 | 4.5 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,614 | 3.9 |
| 2008 | 8 | #13,509 | 4.2 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,432 | 5.2 |
| 2006 | 14 | #8,606 | 7.4 |
| 2005 | 14 | #8,226 | 7.6 |
| 2004 | 14 | #8,124 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 20 | #5,983 | 10.9 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 17 | #6,617 | 9.5 |
| 2001 | 12 | #8,602 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 24 | #4,931 | 13.2 |
| 1999 | 27 | #4,273 | 15.2 |
| 1998 | 26 | #4,333 | 14.7 |
| 1997 | 26 | #4,212 | 14.9 |
| 1996 | 24 | #4,421 | 13.7 |
| 1995 | 32 | #3,470 | 18.2 |
| 1994 | 24 | #4,339 | 13.4 |
| 1993 | 37 | #3,141 | 20.5 |
| 1992 | 28 | #3,839 | 15.2 |
| 1991 | 43 | #2,768 | 22.9 |
| 1990 | 34 | #3,269 | 17.9 |
| 1989 | 39 | #2,848 | 21.2 |
| 1988 | 44 | #2,474 | 24.7 |
| 1987 | 31 | #3,076 | 17.8 |
| 1986 | 31 | #3,028 | 18.1 |
| 1985 | 37 | #2,634 | 21.5 |
| 1984 | 43 | #2,287 | 25.5 |
| 1983 | 19 | #4,067 | 11.4 |
| 1982 | 28 | #3,148 | 16.5 |
| 1981 | 19 | #4,120 | 11.4 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,805 | 12.6 |
| 1979 | 11 | #6,049 | 6.9 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,443 | 5.2 |
| 1977 | 12 | #5,443 | 7.8 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,901 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,731 | 4.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Puja a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Puja has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 38 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Puja: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Puja, and how old are they?
An estimated 798 Americans named Puja and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 35 years old and half are between 28 and 41. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,000 people named Puja (1,988 women and girls, 12 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 803 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,799 babies since 1880, Puja is the second most given (29% 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 Puja
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 Puja and names like it
- Compare Puja and PoojaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sPuja peaked in 1988.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Puja since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Puja: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Puja.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Puja alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with PMost given first.