Khari
A unisex name of Arabic origin meaning "generous" or "giving."
Name Census estimates that about 6,455 living Americans carry the first name Khari. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 71.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Khari today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khari births was 2020 (554 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khari. 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 Khari with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Khari is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 53,099 Americans
Peak year
2020
554 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,222
Tracked since 1971
Census
Khari in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,493 people with the first name Khari, which placed it at #5,044 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
#5,044
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,493 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khari
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khari is Black at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.9%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Khari 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 Khari at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.0% · 2,900
- Two or more races6.9% · 242
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 153
- White4.3% · 151
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Khari
Khari is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 6,550 total registrations, 4,652 (71.0%) were male and 1,898 (29.0%) were female.
Khari as a male name
- Ranked #1,222 in 2024
- 164 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (380 births)
Khari as a female name
- Ranked #2,390 in 2024
- 76 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (231 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Khari on both sides of the split. Of the 3,494 people counted with this name, 2,513 were male (71.9%) and 981 were female (28.1%).
Popularity
Khari: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khari from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 2,198 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khari 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 Khari during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kharis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Khari, while Kansas, Connecticut, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 146 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khari
The name Khari has its roots in the Arabic language and culture. It is believed to have originated in the Middle East and North Africa region during the medieval period. The name is derived from the Arabic word "kharr," which means "fresh" or "verdant." This association with freshness and greenery suggests that the name may have initially been given to children as a symbol of new life and growth.
One of the earliest known references to the name Khari can be found in the writings of the renowned Arab philosopher and scholar, Al-Biruni, who lived in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. In his work, he mentioned a scholar named Khari al-Andalusi, suggesting that the name was in use among the scholarly and intellectual circles of that time.
In the 12th century, the name Khari appeared in the historical records of the Almohad Caliphate, a Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled over parts of modern-day Morocco, Algeria, and Spain. It is documented that a notable figure named Khari ibn Khaldun served as a military leader and governor under the Almohad ruler, Abd al-Mu'min.
Fast-forwarding to the 15th century, the name Khari found its way into the literary works of the renowned Arab poet and scholar, Al-Suyuti. In his anthology of biographies, he mentioned a scholar and historian named Khari al-Qurashi, who lived in Cairo during the Mamluk era.
Among the notable historical figures who bore the name Khari, one cannot overlook Khari Boulad, a renowned Egyptian architect and urban planner who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was responsible for designing several iconic buildings and public spaces in Cairo, including the Egyptian Museum and the Khedival Opera House.
Another prominent figure with the name Khari was Khari Mustafa Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and military leader who lived in the 17th century. He served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and played a crucial role in the Ottoman-Venetian wars.
It is worth mentioning that while the name Khari has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and regions over time. However, the detailed history and cultural significance of the name in these other contexts may vary.
People
Khari + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khari as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Khari: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khari?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,455 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khari 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 53,099 US residents.
Is Khari a common name?
We classify Khari as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,550 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khari most popular?
The single biggest year for Khari was 2020, when 554 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khari is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khari in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,493 people with the name Khari, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,044 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 Khari 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 Khari?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Khari on both sides of the split. Of the 3,494 people counted with this name, 2,513 were male (71.9%) and 981 were female (28.1%). 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 Khari?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khari is Black at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.9%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Khari most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khari in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (2,900 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 Khari in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khari a male name?
Yes, 71.0% of people registered as Khari 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 Khari still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khari 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 Khari 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 have Khari as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Khari on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.