Gautam
A masculine Indian name derived from Gautama Buddha, meaning "descendant of the enlightened one".
Name Census estimates that about 687 living Americans carry the first name Gautam. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gautam today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gautam births was 2008 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gautam. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Gautam with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
687
~ 1 in 498,915 Americans
Peak year
2008
28 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,518
Tracked since 1972
Census
Gautam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,296 people with the first name Gautam, which placed it at #6,844 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,844
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,296 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gautam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gautam is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.8%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Gautam described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Gautam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.8% · 2,223
- White1.5% · 35
- Two or more races0.9% · 21
- Black or African American0.3% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 4
Popularity
Gautam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gautam from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 209 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gautam by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Gautam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gautams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Gautam, while Texas, New Jersey, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 38 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gautam
Gautam is a given name with origins tracing back to ancient India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Gautama," which has roots in the word "gau," meaning "cow" or "earth," and "tama," meaning "greatest" or "supreme." The name is closely associated with the ancient Indian sage and spiritual leader Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
In Hindu mythology, Gautama is also the name of an ancient sage who is revered as one of the Seven Great Sages or Saptarshi. He is believed to have lived during the Vedic period and is credited with composing several hymns in the Rigveda, one of the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism.
The name Gautam appears in various ancient Indian texts, including the Upanishads, the Puranas, and the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata, Gautama is mentioned as the father of the famous sage Charvaka, who founded the Charvaka school of Indian philosophy.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Gautam is from the 6th century BCE, referring to Gautama Buddha, whose given name was Siddhartha Gautama. He was born around 563 BCE in present-day Nepal and is regarded as the founder of Buddhism.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Gautam. These include Gautama Maharishi (7th century BCE), an ancient Indian sage and philosopher; Gautama Rishi (500 BCE), a renowned Hindu sage and author of the Nyaya Sutras; Gautama Siddhartha (563-483 BCE), the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism, also known as Gautama Buddha; Gautama Swami (1879-1920), an Indian yogi and spiritual leader; and Gautama Vajra (1714-1798), a Tibetan Buddhist monk and scholar.
People
Gautam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gautam as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gautam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gautam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 687 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gautam going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 498,915 US residents.
Is Gautam a common name?
We classify Gautam as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 702 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gautam most popular?
The single biggest year for Gautam was 2008, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gautam is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gautam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,296 people with the name Gautam, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,844 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Gautam in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Gautam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gautam appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,298 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Gautam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gautam is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.8%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Gautam most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Gautam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.8% (2,223 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Gautam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gautam a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gautam in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Gautam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gautam in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Gautam can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Gautam?
Find out how many people have the name Gautam on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.