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Rajiv

Boys' name

King, through राजीव

Rajiv has been given to 820 babies in the U.S. since 1962. 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 1985, with 60 recorded.

Babies named Rajiv, 2019

1 in 694,000

Rajiv over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rajiv: meaning, origin, and history

King, through राजीव

Sanskrit

What Rajiv means

Rajiv belongs to the name family reached through Rajiv → राजीव. Its meaning is “king”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Sanskrit राजीव (rājīva), via various Indian languages. The name means 'lotus flower' in Hindi. In Sanskrit, the word means 'Sri Krishna'.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Rajiv (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Rajiv is used in English. Its origins include Sanskrit.

Rajiv comes through Sanskrit राजीव.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include राजीव.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 820 boys were recorded with the name Rajiv between 1962 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 60 in 1985; its best national rank was #1,237 in 1985.

How common is Rajiv?

Rajiv had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 694,000
5 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 359,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
481,354 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rajiv 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 2019 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 481,354 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rajiv. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rajivs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rajiv was born before 1988 — so the typical Rajiv is around 37 today.

Median birth year
1988
About 37 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
33.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
32.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
820
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 33.2% of all recorded uses (272).

Is Rajiv 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 1985 (60)
Years since peak
40
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,237
1985

Spellings of Rajiv

Rajiv is not the most common spelling — Rami is, with 15.1% against Rajiv's 3.2%.

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 Rajiv is used

Across 1910–2025, Rajiv was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 401,994 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6New Jersey1 in —
  7. 7Ohio1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 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. Rajiv has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rajiv around the world

Where Rajiv 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
    1996–2006
    #3,385
    in 2006
  • France
    1980–2007
    #5,176
    in 2007
  • Canada
    1991–1995
    #1,710
    in 1995
  • South Australia
    2004–2004
    #589
    in 2004

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

Rajiv 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
#1,237
1985
Peak year
1985
60 that year
First recorded
1962
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
820
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rajiv

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

RajonRajanRajahRajaRajveerRajeshRajRajeevRajatRajvirRajiRajaeRajohnRajaiSanjivRajkoRajbirRajitRajahnRajabRajuanRajdeepRajaunRajendra

Sibling names for Rajiv

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 Rajiv

Top names of 1985, Rajiv's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1985Boys' names starting with RNepali Boy Names