Indira
A feminine given name of Sanskrit origin meaning "beauty" or "beauty personified".
Name Census estimates that about 2,349 living Americans carry the first name Indira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Indira today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Indira births was 2001 (72 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Indira. 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 Indira with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 145,915 Americans
Peak year
2001
72 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,055
Tracked since 1966
Census
Indira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,291 people with the first name Indira, which placed it at #3,043 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
#3,043
National first-name rank
People counted
7.3K
7,291 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
38.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Indira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Indira is Hispanic at 38.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.4%) and White (11.3%). 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 Indira 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 Indira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino38.4% · 2,799
- Asian and Pacific Islander35.4% · 2,580
- White11.3% · 824
- Black or African American9.5% · 695
- Two or more races4.8% · 352
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 41
Popularity
Indira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Indira from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 611 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Indira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Indira 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 Indira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Indiras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Indira, while Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 83 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Indira
The name Indira has its origins in the Sanskrit language of ancient India. It derives from the Sanskrit word "Indu," meaning "moon," and is a feminine form of the name Indra, which was the name of the king of the gods in Hindu mythology.
The name Indira first appeared in Hindu scriptures and texts, particularly in the Vedas and Puranas, which are ancient Sanskrit literature dating back to around 1500-500 BCE. It was often used as a name for goddesses or celestial beings associated with the moon or its beauty.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Indira is found in the Rig Veda, one of the oldest and most revered Hindu scriptures, where it is mentioned as a name for the goddess of speech and learning, Saraswati.
Throughout history, the name Indira has been borne by several notable figures. One of the most famous was Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), the first female Prime Minister of India, who served from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.
Another famous Indira was Indira Devi (1915-1979), an Indian actress and dancer who was a pioneer of modern Indian classical dance and is considered one of the most influential figures in the field.
In the realm of literature, Indira Goswami (1942-2011) was an Assamese writer and scholar who made significant contributions to the literature of the Assamese language and received the Jnanpith Award, one of India's highest literary honors.
Indira Priyadarshini (1892-1925) was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary who played a prominent role in the Indian independence movement against British rule.
Indira Naidoo (born 1966) is an Australian author, journalist, and television presenter known for her work on sustainable living and environmental issues.
While the name Indira has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Hindu culture, it has since transcended its origins and gained popularity across various cultures and regions, particularly in South Asia and parts of the Indian diaspora around the world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Indira
People
Indira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Indira as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Indira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Indira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,349 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Indira 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 145,915 US residents.
Is Indira a common name?
We classify Indira as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,435 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Indira most popular?
The single biggest year for Indira was 2001, when 72 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Indira is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Indira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,291 people with the name Indira, or 2.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,043 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 Indira 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 Indira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Indira appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,287 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Indira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Indira is Hispanic at 38.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.4%) and White (11.3%). 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 Indira most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Indira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.4% (2,799 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 Indira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Indira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Indira 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 Indira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Indira 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 Indira 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 common is the name Indira?
See how many people share the name Indira on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.