Sanjay
Sanjay was given to 20 boys in 2025, #5,011 among boys’ names; 2,606 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,500 Americans named Sanjay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 16 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sanjay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sanjay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sanjay is “a male given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit संजय (saṃjaya).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sanjay?
#5,011 among boys’ names, 2025
Sanjay fell from #1,928 in 2015 to #5,011 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 39.7 to 11.7 per million.
90 babies in 2006, the peak
Sanjay peaked in 2006, when 90 boys were given it, #1,615 among boys’ names. The 20 births of 2025 are 22% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 20 | #5,011 | 11.7 |
| 2024 | 23 | #4,539 | 13.3 |
| 2023 | 22 | #4,714 | 12.9 |
| 2022 | 24 | #4,411 | 13.7 |
| 2021 | 16 | #5,736 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 24 | #4,253 | 13.9 |
| 2019 | 31 | #3,618 | 17.3 |
| 2018 | 32 | #3,502 | 17.6 |
| 2017 | 38 | #3,110 | 20.5 |
| 2016 | 44 | #2,761 | 23.2 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 76 | #1,928 | 39.7 |
| 2014 | 58 | #2,289 | 30.2 |
| 2013 | 71 | #1,958 | 37.5 |
| 2012 | 60 | #2,201 | 31.6 |
| 2011 | 71 | #1,961 | 37.4 |
| 2010 | 87 | #1,749 | 45.3 |
| 2009 | 86 | #1,769 | 43.4 |
| 2008 | 87 | #1,750 | 42.6 |
| 2007 | 73 | #1,942 | 35.2 |
| 2006 | 90 | #1,615 | 43.8 |
| 2005 | 61 | #2,051 | 30.5 |
| 2004 | 69 | #1,809 | 34.8 |
| 2003 | 65 | #1,837 | 32.9 |
| 2002 | 48 | #2,212 | 24.7 |
| 2001 | 48 | #2,175 | 24.7 |
| 2000 | 58 | #1,842 | 29.5 |
| 1999 | 46 | #2,088 | 24.0 |
| 1998 | 42 | #2,189 | 22.0 |
| 1997 | 37 | #2,297 | 19.6 |
| 1996 | 42 | #2,064 | 22.2 |
| 1995 | 39 | #2,128 | 20.5 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,072 | 20.7 |
| 1993 | 42 | #1,957 | 21.4 |
| 1992 | 33 | #2,290 | 16.5 |
| 1991 | 27 | #2,589 | 13.4 |
| 1990 | 35 | #2,117 | 17.0 |
| 1989 | 18 | #3,298 | 9.0 |
| 1988 | 25 | #2,420 | 13.1 |
| 1987 | 25 | #2,318 | 13.4 |
| 1986 | 30 | #1,997 | 16.3 |
| 1985 | 28 | #2,063 | 15.1 |
| 1984 | 28 | #1,968 | 15.5 |
| 1983 | 30 | #1,856 | 16.7 |
| 1982 | 47 | #1,390 | 25.9 |
| 1981 | 47 | #1,392 | 26.2 |
| 1980 | 35 | #1,691 | 19.6 |
| 1979 | 31 | #1,827 | 18.0 |
| 1978 | 35 | #1,614 | 21.3 |
| 1977 | 42 | #1,427 | 25.6 |
| 1976 | 38 | #1,466 | 24.2 |
| 1975 | 39 | #1,423 | 25.0 |
| 1974 | 58 | #1,090 | 36.9 |
| 1973 | 47 | #1,219 | 30.2 |
| 1972 | 27 | #1,713 | 16.7 |
| 1971 | 41 | #1,325 | 23.2 |
| 1970 | 33 | #1,488 | 17.8 |
| 1969 | 37 | #1,319 | 20.7 |
| 1968 | 24 | #1,637 | 13.8 |
| 1967 | 21 | #1,750 | 12.0 |
| 1966 | 18 | #1,877 | 10.1 |
| 1965 | 14 | #2,252 | 7.5 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,552 | 3.5 |
| 1963 | 8 | #3,277 | 3.9 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,265 | 3.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Sanjay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sanjay has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 64 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sanjay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sanjay, and how old are they?
2,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 2,606 Americans ever recorded as Sanjay. The median Sanjay alive today is 24 years old; half are between 16 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 8,737 people named Sanjay (47 women and girls, 8,690 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,403 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 18 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 480 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 509 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 475 |
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 Sanjay born?
The states with the most babies named Sanjay are New York, California and Florida, with 73% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 348 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| California | 326 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Florida | 111 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 79 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Texas | 63 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 51 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Indiana | 34 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Georgia | 16 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| North Carolina | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Sanjay is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sanjay is most over-represented in New York: since 1962 it was given 2.0 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 Sanjay 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 2,675 babies since 1880, Sanjay is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 20 of their 31 babies (65%), again the most given.
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 Sanjay
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 Sanjay and names like it
- Compare Sanjay and SanjiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSanjay peaked in 2006.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sanjay since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Sanjay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Sanjay.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sanjay alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.