Ankur
Masculine · “a sprout”
Ankur is an ordinary Hindi and Sanskrit noun meaning a sprout — the first green shoot coming out of a seed. It enters the American record in the same year as a film that changed Indian cinema and was called exactly that.
How old is the name Ankur?
Ankur first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Ankur alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 600 people named Ankur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ankur most popular?
Ankur peaked in 1981, reaching #1520 nationally. See the whole 1981 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ankur
Shyam Benegal's first feature came out in nineteen seventy-four, was made on a small budget with money raised from advertising work, and is generally taken as the start of what became known as parallel cinema — realist, socially argumentative films made against the commercial mainstream. It is about a landlord's son and a servant woman in a Telangana village, it has no songs, and it made a star of Shabana Azmi in her first role. The title means a sprout, and the last shot is a child throwing a stone. The film traveled internationally and won at Berlin. The same year the name begins appearing in American birth records, which is the kind of coincidence the data throws up often enough that it is worth noting and never quite enough to prove.
Meaning
a sprout; a first shoot
The Sanskrit word for the shoot a seed puts out, still live in Hindi as an everyday noun. Indian naming draws on the ordinary vocabulary constantly, so a bearer's name means something to every speaker of the language rather than requiring a dictionary.
Pronouncing Ankur
UN-koor
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The first vowel is the one in cup rather than the one in ankle, which is what English readers get wrong on sight.
Nicknames for Ankur
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 198140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1520reached in 1981
- Change vs 2011
- −16.7%5 in 2016, from 6
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.
Ankur in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- अंकुर in Hindi — same name
Ankurs among us
people named Ankur are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ankur sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent to every Hindi speaker and needs no explanation there.
- Five letters with no silent ones make it simple to write and spell aloud.
- Two syllables with front stress is easy once the first vowel is learned.
- English readers will say the first vowel as in anchor, which is not the Hindi sound.
- Ankit, Anker and Ankur will all be confused with one another.
- It is an ordinary noun in Hindi, which speakers hear before they hear a name.
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Ankur
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ankurs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ankur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ankur in 2025?
- Ankur is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ankur with classmates?
- Ankur will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ankur? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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