Rahul
Rahul was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,494 among boys’ names; 3,332 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,220 Americans named Rahul and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 22 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rahul by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rahul mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rahul is “a male given name from Sanskrit.”
Transliteration of Sanskrit राहुल (rāhula)
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rahul?
#9,494 among boys’ names, 2025
Rahul fell from #6,231 in 2015 to #9,494 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 7.3 to 4.7 per million.
196 babies in 2000, the peak
Rahul peaked in 2000, when 196 boys were given it, #816 among boys’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #9,494 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 6 | #12,012 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 10 | #8,113 | 5.8 |
| 2022 | 10 | #8,158 | 5.7 |
| 2021 | 10 | #8,019 | 5.7 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,340 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,552 | 3.9 |
| 2018 | 13 | #6,616 | 7.2 |
| 2017 | 14 | #6,261 | 7.6 |
| 2016 | 16 | #5,727 | 8.4 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 14 | #6,231 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 30 | #3,595 | 15.6 |
| 2013 | 29 | #3,635 | 15.3 |
| 2012 | 37 | #3,097 | 19.5 |
| 2011 | 41 | #2,887 | 21.6 |
| 2010 | 57 | #2,281 | 29.7 |
| 2009 | 63 | #2,158 | 31.8 |
| 2008 | 84 | #1,788 | 41.2 |
| 2007 | 93 | #1,655 | 44.8 |
| 2006 | 105 | #1,466 | 51.1 |
| 2005 | 128 | #1,239 | 64.1 |
| 2004 | 166 | #998 | 83.6 |
| 2003 | 162 | #981 | 82.0 |
| 2002 | 171 | #943 | 88.1 |
| 2001 | 187 | #859 | 96.2 |
| 2000 | 196 | #816 | 99.8 |
| 1999 | 168 | #896 | 87.5 |
| 1998 | 142 | #974 | 74.3 |
| 1997 | 124 | #1,034 | 65.8 |
| 1996 | 85 | #1,297 | 44.9 |
| 1995 | 90 | #1,226 | 47.3 |
| 1994 | 97 | #1,156 | 50.2 |
| 1993 | 79 | #1,280 | 40.3 |
| 1992 | 64 | #1,443 | 32.0 |
| 1991 | 83 | #1,216 | 41.1 |
| 1990 | 45 | #1,769 | 21.9 |
| 1989 | 47 | #1,670 | 23.5 |
| 1988 | 51 | #1,493 | 26.6 |
| 1987 | 60 | #1,265 | 32.1 |
| 1986 | 52 | #1,378 | 28.2 |
| 1985 | 51 | #1,368 | 27.6 |
| 1984 | 41 | #1,523 | 22.7 |
| 1983 | 37 | #1,622 | 20.6 |
| 1982 | 38 | #1,614 | 20.9 |
| 1981 | 27 | #2,027 | 15.1 |
| 1980 | 38 | #1,585 | 21.3 |
| 1979 | 22 | #2,292 | 12.8 |
| 1978 | 41 | #1,466 | 25.0 |
| 1977 | 28 | #1,848 | 17.0 |
| 1976 | 25 | #1,978 | 15.9 |
| 1975 | 38 | #1,444 | 24.3 |
| 1974 | 29 | #1,685 | 18.4 |
| 1973 | 18 | #2,294 | 11.5 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,539 | 5.6 |
| 1971 | 16 | #2,446 | 9.0 |
| 1970 | 10 | #3,228 | 5.4 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,517 | 4.5 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,389 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rahul a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rahul has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 58 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Rahul: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rahul, and how old are they?
3,220 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 3,332 Americans ever recorded as Rahul. The median Rahul alive today is 26 years old; half are between 22 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 10,064 people named Rahul (9 women and girls, 10,055 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,207 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.1 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 | 260 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 903 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,890 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 173 |
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 Rahul born?
The states with the most babies named Rahul are California, New Jersey and New York, with 65% 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 | 597 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| New Jersey | 354 | not ranked | 3.7× |
| New York | 332 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Illinois | 179 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Texas | 136 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 89 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 62 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 46 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Maryland | 41 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Rahul is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rahul is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1966 it was given 3.7 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 Rahul 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 96,597 babies since 1880, Rahul is the second most given (3.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 566 babies (1.4%), the fifth most given that year.
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 Rahul
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 Rahul and names like it
- Compare Rahul and RaulBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sRahul peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rahul since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Rahul: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Rahul.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Rahul alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.