Aparna
Feminine · “leafless”
Aparna means leafless, and the story behind it is about a woman who stopped eating. Parvati performed austerities to win Shiva, giving up more and more until she would not even take the fallen leaves that ascetics live on — and the gods, alarmed, called her Aparna, the one without leaves. It is a name about refusing to be talked out of something.
How old is the name Aparna?
Aparna first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Aparna alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 500 people named Aparna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aparna most popular?
Aparna peaked in 1975, reaching #4370 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 10,572 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a-parna to Aparna
The story of Aparna
Parvati's austerities are told in the Puranas and in Kalidasa's poem on the birth of the war god: she withdraws to the mountains, sits through heat and cold, eats less and less, and finally refuses even leaves. Shiva, testing her, comes in disguise and abuses himself to her face; she will not hear it. The epithet Aparna comes from that period of her practice, and it is used as a name across India, particularly in Bengal. American records carry it from 1970.
Meaning
leafless
From the Sanskrit a-, not, and parna, a leaf. The negative prefix is the same one that opens Amrita and, in Greek, words like atheist and anonymous — the branches of the family kept it. The name is an epithet of Parvati and refers to a specific episode rather than to a quality in general.
How the name formed
- a-parna
- Aparna
Related forms: Aparna · Aparna · Aparna
Pronouncing Aparna
uh-PAR-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The r is lightly tapped rather than the English one, and the first vowel is very short. English speakers handle the name without difficulty.
Nicknames for Aparna
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 200427 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4370reached in 1975
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
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.
Aparna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aparna in Sanskrit — same name
- Aparna in Bengali — same name
- Aparna in Hindi — same name
Aparnas among us
people named Aparna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Aparna
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 Catharina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aparna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Catharina climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Catharina's path sketches the road Aparna is walking now.
Aparna 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
Aparna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aparna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The story behind it is specific, memorable and about persistence rather than beauty.
- Six letters, three syllables, and no sound English lacks.
- It is spelled phonetically in the Roman alphabet.
- It is used across several Indian languages, so it travels within South Asia.
- The literal meaning is leafless, which sounds odd without the story attached.
- Outside Indian communities the name needs a short introduction.
- Aparna and Apoorna are both in use, so the spelling is occasionally asked for.
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What they receive
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Aparna
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aparnas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Aparna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aparna in 2025?
- Aparna ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aparna?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Aparna — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aparna with classmates?
- Aparna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aparna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aparna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aparna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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