Praveen
A masculine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "skilled" or "accomplished".
Name Census estimates that about 210 living Americans carry the first name Praveen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Praveen today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Praveen births was 1979 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Praveen. 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 Praveen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
210
~ 1 in 1,632,164 Americans
Peak year
1979
10 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2010 SSA rank
#10,474
Tracked since 1970
Census
Praveen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,804 people with the first name Praveen, which placed it at #4,769 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
#4,769
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,804 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Praveen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Praveen is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.5%. The next largest groups are White (1.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Praveen 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 Praveen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.5% · 3,710
- White1.4% · 52
- Two or more races0.5% · 18
- Black or African American0.3% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Praveen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Praveen from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 64 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
Praveen 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 Praveen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Praveens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Praveen
The name Praveen has its origins in the Sanskrit language, an ancient Indo-Aryan tongue that dates back over 3,500 years and served as the root for many modern Indian languages. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "praveena," which means "skilled," "learned," or "accomplished." This word traces its roots further back to the Proto-Indo-European base "*pra-went-."
The name likely first came into use during the Vedic period in ancient India, around the second millennium BCE. It can be found referenced in several Hindu scriptures, including the Upanishads and the epic poems of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Some of the earliest recorded individuals with the name include the 7th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer Praveen Chandra.
Throughout Indian history, the name Praveen has been borne by several notable figures. One of the most famous was Praveen Pandita, a 12th-century Kashmiri philosopher and poet who wrote extensively on theology and philosophy. In the 15th century, Praveen Mal served as a military leader and warrior under the Mughal Empire.
The 16th century saw the birth of Praveen Sundaram, a renowned musician and composer who helped shape the classical Carnatic music tradition. Meanwhile, in the 18th century, Praveen Chatterji was a revered Sanskrit scholar and writer from Bengal.
Moving into more modern times, Praveen Chaudhari was an Indian physicist and materials scientist born in 1938, best known for his pioneering work on amorphous materials and their applications in electronics and optics.
While the name Praveen has deep roots in Indian culture and history, it has also been adopted globally in recent centuries as part of the Indian diaspora. Yet its core meaning of "skilled" or "accomplished" has remained consistent throughout its long and storied past.
People
Praveen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Praveen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Praveen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Praveen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 210 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Praveen 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 1,632,164 US residents.
Is Praveen a common name?
We classify Praveen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 217 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Praveen most popular?
The single biggest year for Praveen was 1979, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Praveen is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Praveen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,804 people with the name Praveen, or 1.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,769 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 Praveen 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 Praveen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Praveen leans strongly male. 3,708 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 101 female bearers (2.7%). 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 Praveen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Praveen is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.5%. The next largest groups are White (1.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Praveen most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Praveen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.5% (3,710 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 Praveen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Praveen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Praveen 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 Praveen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Praveen 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 Praveen 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 Praveen?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Praveen at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.