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Ganesh

Boys' name

Form of Ganesha

Ganesh has been given to 291 babies in the U.S. since 1977. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1993, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Ganesh, 2021

1 in 565,000

Ganesh over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ganesh: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Ganesha

Sanskrit

What Ganesh means

Ganesh is a form of Ganesha.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ganesh is used in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Bengali and Nepali.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ɡə.ˈɳeʃ/ for Ganesh.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Ganesh → Ganesha → गणेश. The family’s meaning is “servants of Shiva + lord, master”, recorded in Sanskrit with the source elements गण and ईश.

Origin, language, and formation

Ganesh is used in English. Its origins include Sanskrit.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ganesha.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Ganesh is pronounced /ɡəˈneɪʃ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 291 boys were recorded with the name Ganesh between 1977 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1993; its best national rank was #4,309 in 1993.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ganesh?

Ganesh had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among boys only
1 in 292,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ganesh sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ganesh. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ganeshs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ganesh was born before 2001 — so the typical Ganesh is around 24 today.

Median birth year
2001
About 24 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
35.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
64.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
291
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 35.1% of all recorded uses (102).

Is Ganesh rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1993 (14)
Years since peak
32
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
37.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,309
1993

Spellings of Ganesh

Ganesh is not the most common spelling — Gareth is, with 29.0% against Ganesh's 1.9%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Ganesh is used

Across 1910–2025, Ganesh was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,796,049 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Ganesh has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ganesh around the world

Where Ganesh ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • France
    1984–1999
    #3,475
    in 1999
  • South Australia
    1988–2001
    #581
    in 2001

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Ganesh by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,309
1993
Peak year
1993
14 that year
First recorded
1977
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
291
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ganesh

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

DeveshSarveshGanonVigneshAneeshMaheshRakeshRameshNileshAvaneeshRiteshDineshGannonMiteshSureshNikeshRajeshGanzaGannenAvneeshNareshJayeshHiteshNimesh

Sibling names for Ganesh

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Ganesh

Top names of 1993, Ganesh's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1993Boys' names starting with G