Aakash
Masculine · “Sanskrit akasha”
Indian philosophy counts five elements and the fifth is akasha, usually translated ether or space. It is not empty: it is the medium sound moves through, the subtlest of the five, and the one the other four are held in. Greek philosophy reached for the same idea and called it aether. Two traditions independently decided that space itself is a substance.
How old is the name Aakash?
Aakash first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Aakash alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,000 people named Aakash are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aakash most popular?
Aakash peaked in 1992, reaching #1844 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,399 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From akasha to Aakash
The story of Aakash
The five-element scheme runs through Hindu, Buddhist and Jain thought and into Ayurvedic medicine, and akasha is the one that gives the others somewhere to be. Each element is paired with a sense: earth with smell, water with taste, fire with sight, air with touch, and akasha with hearing. That pairing is why the word is more precisely translated as the medium of sound than as sky, and it is why the term reappears in modern Indian languages for radio broadcasting: Akashvani, voice from the ether, is the name of India's national radio service. As a personal name Aakash is common across northern India and among Indian communities abroad, and the doubled a in the American spelling is doing what doubled letters do in transliteration systems generally, marking a length distinction English does not have. It peaks in the American data in 1992.
Meaning
Sanskrit akasha, sky, space or ether
From Sanskrit akasha, from a root meaning to shine or be visible, giving the sense of the open sky and then of space as such. In the classical five-element scheme it stands with earth, water, fire and air, and it is associated specifically with sound, since sound requires a medium. The spelling Aakash uses the ITRANS convention in which a doubled a marks the Sanskrit long vowel, so the doubling here carries real information rather than decoration.
How the name formed
- akasha
- Aakash
Related forms: Aakash · Akasha · Akash
Pronouncing Aakash
AH-kahsh
Two syllables, stress on the first, both a vowels long. The doubled a in the spelling marks that length. English speakers often say uh-KASH with a reduced first vowel and the stress moved, which reverses the Sanskrit pattern.
Nicknames for Aakash
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 200249 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1844reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −30.8%9 in 2025, from 13
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aakash in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aakash in Hindi — transliteration
- Akasha in Sanskrit — related form
- Akash in Nepali — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Aakashs among us
people named Aakash are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Aakash
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aakash
- #8243
- Aakash on the 2025 chart
- #896
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aakash went to 9 boys in 2025, but Akash is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 896th most-given boys’ name of the year — 7,347 places above the chart.
- Akash23
- Aakash9
About 1 boy in 53,377 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 189,786 for Aakash itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gunther test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aakash's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gunther climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gunther's path sketches the road Aakash is walking now.
Aakash sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Aakash beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aakash in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and philosophically rich.
- Kash is a short form that works easily in English.
- The doubled a is meaningful rather than decorative.
- Akash without the doubled a is the more common spelling in the United States.
- English speakers move the stress to the second syllable.
- The vowel length that the spelling marks is inaudible to most English ears.
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Aakash
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aakashs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Aakash are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aakash?
- Aakash is one of 2 recorded spellings. Akash is the more common one — 23 births in 2025 against 9 for Aakash.
- How popular is the name Aakash in 2025?
- Aakash ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aakash?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Aakash — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aakash with classmates?
- Aakash will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aakash
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aakash? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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