Madhav
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "the wise one" or "sweet as honey".
Name Census estimates that about 602 living Americans carry the first name Madhav. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Madhav today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Madhav births was 2023 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Madhav. 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 Madhav with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
602
~ 1 in 569,359 Americans
Peak year
2023
35 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,422
Tracked since 1992
Census
Madhav in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,194 people with the first name Madhav, which placed it at #10,947 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
#10,947
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,194 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Madhav
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madhav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Hispanic (0.5%). 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 Madhav 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 Madhav at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.0% · 1,146
- White2.3% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
- Two or more races0.4% · 5
- Black or African American0.3% · 4
Popularity
Madhav: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Madhav from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 253 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Madhav remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Madhav 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 Madhav during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Madhavs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Madhav, while Virginia, Florida, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Madhav
The name Madhav is of Sanskrit origin and it is derived from the words "madhu" meaning honey or sweet, and "dhaav" meaning flow or stream. The name is commonly found in Hindu communities across the Indian subcontinent, particularly in northern and central India. It is believed to have originated around the 5th century BCE during the Vedic period.
The earliest recorded mention of the name Madhav can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas, where it is used as one of the names of the Hindu god Vishnu. In these texts, the name is associated with Vishnu's divine attributes of sweetness, grace, and the source of spiritual sustenance.
One of the earliest historical figures to bear the name Madhav was Madhavacharya, a renowned 13th-century Hindu philosopher and scholar from the state of Karnataka in southern India. He was a proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta and authored several influential works, including the Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha.
In the 16th century, Madhav Vidyaranya was a prominent Hindu guru and the founder of the Vijayanagara Empire in southern India. He served as the spiritual preceptor of the empire's first ruler, Harihara I, and played a significant role in the empire's establishment and growth.
During the 17th century, Madhav Rao Peshwa was a prominent statesman and the founder of the Maratha Empire's Peshwa dynasty. He served as the chief minister and de facto ruler of the empire under the nominal rule of the Maratha king Shahu.
In more recent times, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar was an influential ideologue and the second Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization in India. He served as the head of the organization from 1940 to 1973 and played a key role in shaping its ideology and growth.
Madhav Kundu was a renowned Indian classical vocalist and exponent of the Gwalior gharana (stylistic tradition) of Hindustani classical music. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors, in 1992 for his contributions to music.
People
Madhav + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Madhav as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Madhav: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Madhav?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 602 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Madhav 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 569,359 US residents.
Is Madhav a common name?
We classify Madhav as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 608 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Madhav most popular?
The single biggest year for Madhav was 2023, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Madhav is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Madhav in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,194 people with the name Madhav, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,947 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 Madhav 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 Madhav?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Madhav appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,185 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Madhav?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madhav is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Hispanic (0.5%). 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 Madhav most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Madhav in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.0% (1,146 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 Madhav in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Madhav a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Madhav 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 Madhav still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Madhav 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 Madhav 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 are named Madhav?
Want to know how many people share the name Madhav? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.