Gayatri
A feminine Sanskrit name meaning "sacred meter of the Vedas".
Name Census estimates that about 303 living Americans carry the first name Gayatri. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gayatri today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gayatri births was 2006 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gayatri. 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 Gayatri with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
303
~ 1 in 1,131,202 Americans
Peak year
2006
16 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,004
Tracked since 1977
Census
Gayatri in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,706 people with the first name Gayatri, which placed it at #8,494 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
#8,494
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,706 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gayatri
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayatri is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.8%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Two or More Races (1.0%). 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 Gayatri 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 Gayatri at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.8% · 1,618
- White2.5% · 42
- Two or more races1.0% · 17
- Black or African American0.8% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 5
Popularity
Gayatri: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gayatri 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 120 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
Gayatri 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 Gayatri during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gayatris live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gayatri
The name Gayatri has its origins in ancient Sanskrit, one of the oldest Indo-European languages that dates back to around 1500 BC. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "gāyatri", which means a sacred Vedic meter or mantra. The Gayatri mantra is one of the most revered and powerful mantras in Hinduism, believed to be the embodiment of divine knowledge.
The name Gayatri finds its earliest mentions in the Rigveda, one of the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism, composed between 1500–1000 BC. The Gayatri mantra itself is a highly revered hymn dedicated to the sun god, Savitri, and is considered a powerful spiritual and philosophical chant.
Throughout Hindu history, the name Gayatri has been associated with numerous influential figures. One of the earliest recorded instances is Gayatri Devi, a Hindu sage and philosopher who lived around the 8th century BC and was known for her profound knowledge of the Vedas and her contributions to Vedic philosophy.
In the 5th century AD, Gayatri Chakravarti, a renowned scholar and author, wrote several important works on Hindu philosophy and Sanskrit literature. Her treatises on the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are considered seminal works in the field of Hindu philosophy.
During the 11th century, Gayatri Devi, a queen of the Kachwaha Rajput dynasty, was renowned for her beauty, intelligence, and patronage of the arts and culture. She played a significant role in the development of the Rajput architectural style and the promotion of Sanskrit literature.
In the 20th century, Gayatri Devi, the third Maharani of Jaipur, was a prominent figure in Indian politics and society. Born in 1919, she served as a member of the Indian Parliament and was widely admired for her philanthropic efforts and advocacy for women's rights.
Another notable figure named Gayatri was Gayatri Spivak, a renowned Indian literary theorist, philosopher, and scholar born in 1942. She is best known for her seminal work in postcolonial theory, feminist theory, and deconstruction, and has made significant contributions to the fields of cultural studies and subaltern studies.
People
Gayatri + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gayatri 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
Gayatri: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gayatri?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 303 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gayatri 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 1,131,202 US residents.
Is Gayatri a common name?
We classify Gayatri as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 308 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gayatri most popular?
The single biggest year for Gayatri was 2006, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gayatri is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gayatri in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,706 people with the name Gayatri, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,494 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 Gayatri 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 Gayatri?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gayatri appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,704 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Gayatri?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayatri is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.8%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Two or More Races (1.0%). 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 Gayatri most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Gayatri in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.8% (1,618 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 Gayatri in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gayatri a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gayatri in the SSA data are female. 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 Gayatri still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gayatri 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 Gayatri 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 Americans are named Gayatri?
Want to know how many Americans are named Gayatri? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.