Varun
Varun was given to 15 boys in 2025, #6,108 among boys’ names; 2,598 Americans have been recorded with it since 1981 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,550 Americans named Varun and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 16 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Varun by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Varun mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Varun is “a male given name from Sanskrit commonly used in India.” Its etymology gives the sense “Varuna” (वरुण).
Borrowed from Sanskrit वरुण (váruṇa, “Varuna”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Varun?
#6,108 among boys’ names, 2025
Varun fell from #2,408 in 2015 to #6,108 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 28.2 to 8.8 per million.
145 babies in 2004, the peak
Varun peaked in 2004, when 145 boys were given it, #1,093 among boys’ names. The 15 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 15 | #6,108 | 8.8 |
| 2024 | 18 | #5,423 | 10.4 |
| 2023 | 20 | #5,047 | 11.7 |
| 2022 | 23 | #4,550 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 31 | #3,642 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | 27 | #3,907 | 15.6 |
| 2019 | 40 | #3,043 | 22.3 |
| 2018 | 45 | #2,744 | 24.8 |
| 2017 | 47 | #2,668 | 25.4 |
| 2016 | 44 | #2,772 | 23.2 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 54 | #2,408 | 28.2 |
| 2014 | 50 | #2,511 | 26.0 |
| 2013 | 62 | #2,160 | 32.8 |
| 2012 | 64 | #2,130 | 33.7 |
| 2011 | 72 | #1,945 | 37.9 |
| 2010 | 88 | #1,735 | 45.9 |
| 2009 | 93 | #1,695 | 46.9 |
| 2008 | 101 | #1,581 | 49.5 |
| 2007 | 95 | #1,637 | 45.8 |
| 2006 | 116 | #1,386 | 56.4 |
| 2005 | 140 | #1,148 | 70.1 |
| 2004 | 145 | #1,093 | 73.0 |
| 2003 | 121 | #1,218 | 61.3 |
| 2002 | 123 | #1,157 | 63.4 |
| 2001 | 99 | #1,322 | 51.0 |
| 2000 | 113 | #1,204 | 57.5 |
| 1999 | 107 | #1,200 | 55.7 |
| 1998 | 95 | #1,276 | 49.7 |
| 1997 | 79 | #1,396 | 41.9 |
| 1996 | 67 | #1,511 | 35.4 |
| 1995 | 57 | #1,616 | 29.9 |
| 1994 | 43 | #1,967 | 22.3 |
| 1993 | 44 | #1,898 | 22.4 |
| 1992 | 39 | #2,038 | 19.5 |
| 1991 | 35 | #2,132 | 17.3 |
| 1990 | 27 | #2,545 | 13.1 |
| 1989 | 28 | #2,405 | 14.0 |
| 1988 | 28 | #2,245 | 14.6 |
| 1987 | 23 | #2,459 | 12.3 |
| 1986 | 20 | #2,677 | 10.9 |
| 1985 | 18 | #2,820 | 9.7 |
| 1984 | 14 | #3,262 | 7.8 |
| 1983 | 12 | #3,622 | 6.7 |
| 1982 | 11 | #3,949 | 6.1 |
| 1981 | 5 | #7,234 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Varun a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Varun has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Varun: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Varun, and how old are they?
2,550 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,598 Americans ever recorded as Varun. The median Varun alive today is 22 years old; half are between 16 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 5,111 people named Varun (10 women and girls, 5,101 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,435 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.1 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 451 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,620 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 472 |
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 Varun born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5 | #2,791 | 1.3× |
Where Varun is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Varun is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1981 it was given 3.2 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 Varun 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 3,013 babies since 1880, Varun is the most given (86% of them). In 2025 it was given to 15 of their 22 babies (68%), 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 Varun
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 Varun and names like it
- Compare Varun and VarianBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sVarun peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Varun since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Varun: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Varun.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Varun alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with VMost given first.