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Gopal

Boys' name

Guard, protector, keeper, through गोपाल

Gopal has been given to 92 babies in the U.S. since 1975. 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 1983, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Gopal, 2020

1 in 668,000

Gopal over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gopal: meaning, origin, and history

Guard, protector, keeper, through गोपाल

Sanskrit

What Gopal means

Gopal belongs to the name family reached through Gopal → गोपाल → गोपाल. Its meaning is “guard, protector, keeper”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gopal is used in English. Its origins include Sanskrit.

Gopal comes through Hindi गोपाल.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include ग and गोपाल.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 92 boys were recorded with the name Gopal between 1975 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1983; its best national rank was #4,649 in 1983.

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 Gopal?

Gopal had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2020, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2020
1 in 668,000
5 of 3,342,313 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2020
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,344 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gopal 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 2020 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 463,344 children born in 2020 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gopal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gopals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gopal was born before 1996 — so the typical Gopal is around 29 today.

Median birth year
1996
About 29 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
28.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
92
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 28.3% of all recorded uses (26).

Is Gopal 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 1983 (8)
Years since peak
42
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Very steady
0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,649
1983

Spellings of Gopal

Gopal is not the most common spelling — Royal is, with 53.4% against Gopal's 0.24%.

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.

Gopal around the world

Where Gopal 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
    1996–2008
    #4,432
    in 2008
  • South Australia
    1978–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Gopal 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
#4,649
1983
Peak year
1983
8 that year
First recorded
1975
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
92
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gopal

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

JaspalPalAmritpalHarpalOpalRipalGurpal

Sibling names for Gopal

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 Gopal

Top names of 1983, Gopal's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1983Boys' names starting with GSanskrit Boy Names