Akshay
Masculine · “imperishable”
Akshay means that which does not diminish. Sanskrit builds it from a negative prefix and a word for decay, and the compound names a specific idea: something that is used and does not run out. There is a festival built on it — Akshaya Tritiya, the day when what is begun is held never to decrease. Its American peak is 2002.
How old is the name Akshay?
Akshay first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Akshay alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 1,800 people named Akshay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Akshay most popular?
Akshay peaked in 2002, reaching #1505 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,638 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kshaya to Akshay
The story of Akshay
Akshaya Tritiya falls in the spring and is one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar: anything begun on it is held to grow and never diminish, which is why it is among the busiest days of the year for buying gold and starting businesses in India. The word appears throughout Sanskrit literature in that sense. As a modern given name Akshay is common across northern and western India, and it is carried by one of the most prolific actors in Hindi cinema. American records show it from the 1980s with post-1965 Indian migration and peaking in 2002.
Meaning
imperishable; that which does not diminish
Sanskrit a- is the negative prefix and kshaya means decay, wasting or diminution, from the root kshi, 'to waste away'. Akshaya is therefore the undiminishing. The word is used of things that are inexhaustible rather than merely permanent — the akshaya patra of the Mahabharata is a vessel that never empties. The derivation is settled and the distinction from simple permanence is genuinely part of it.
How the name formed
- kshaya
- akshaya
- Akshay
Related forms: Akshaya · Akshay · Akshay
Pronouncing Akshay
UK-shy
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ksh said as a single cluster and the second syllable rhyming with sky. English speakers manage the cluster readily; the main error is inserting a vowel between the k and the sh.
Nicknames for Akshay
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
- 1981
- Most boys named
- 200889 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1505reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −39.1%14 in 2025, from 23
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.
Akshay in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Akshaya in Sanskrit — same name
- Akshay in Hindi — same name
- Akshay in Marathi — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New Jersey.
Akshays among us
people named Akshay are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Akshay
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Correy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Akshay's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Correy climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Correy's path sketches the road Akshay is walking now.
Akshay 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
Akshay beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Akshay 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 precise, positive and expressible in three words.
- Shay is an unexpected and entirely usable short form in English.
- The spelling is phonetic and stable across transliteration.
- The ksh cluster is unusual in English and often gets broken up.
- Akshay, Akshai and Akshaya all circulate as transliterations.
- It is rare in the United States and will be spelled out routinely.
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Akshay
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Akshays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Akshay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Akshay in 2025?
- Akshay ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Akshay?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Akshay — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Akshay with classmates?
- Akshay will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Akshay
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Akshay? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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