Rajeev
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · “blue lotus (Sanskrit rajiva)”
Rajeev is the Sanskrit rajiva, the blue lotus of Indian poetry. Botany adds a surprise: no true lotus flowers blue, and the blue lotus the poets praised is a water lily.
How old is the name Rajeev?
Rajeev first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Rajeev alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 500 people named Rajeev are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rajeev most popular?
Rajeev peaked in 1974, reaching #1983 nationally. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rajiva (Sanskrit) to Rajeev
The story of Rajeev
Sanskrit poets had several words for the flowers of India's ponds, and rajiva named the blue one. True lotuses, the genus Nelumbo, flower only in pinks, whites and yellows; the blue flower of the poems is a water lily, a different plant whose blooms sit at the water's surface. Among the name's modern bearers is Rajeev Motwani, the Stanford computer scientist who advised the young founders of Google and co-wrote the early paper describing their PageRank method.
Meaning
blue lotus (Sanskrit rajiva)
From Sanskrit rajiva, a name for the blue lotus. Rajeev and Rajiv are the same name in two spellings.
How the name formed
- rajivaSanskrit
- Rajiv or Rajeevmodern Indian
Related forms: Rajiv
Pronouncing Rajeev
rah-JEEV
Two syllables, stress on the second; the j as in jam.
Nicknames for Rajeev
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 197926 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1983reached in 1974
- Change vs 2011
- +33.3%8 in 2013, 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.
Rajeev in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rajiv in Indian English — spelling variant
Rajeevs among us
people named Rajeev 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
Rajeev 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
- A clear Sanskrit meaning tied to a flower of classical poetry.
- The double e tells English readers how to say the second syllable.
- Raj is a ready short form.
- Rajiv is the more familiar spelling, so it will often be written that way.
- It is best known among Indian American men of an earlier generation, so it can read as a name of that era.
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Rajeev
Masculine · Sanskrit roots
Frequently asked
- How many Rajeevs 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 Rajeev are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rajeev in 2025?
- Rajeev is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Rajeev with classmates?
- Rajeev will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rajeev? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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