Rajiv
Masculine · “blue lotus”
Rajiv is a Sanskrit word before it is a name. It is one of several words for a lotus, and specifically the blue one, the flower that opens on still water. It has been in use in India for a very long time, and it has traveled with Indian families everywhere they have gone.
How old is the name Rajiv?
Rajiv first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Rajiv alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 800 people named Rajiv are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rajiv most popular?
Rajiv peaked in 1985, reaching #1228 nationally. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rajiva to Rajiv
The story of Rajiv
Sanskrit had a generous supply of words for the lotus, and rajiva is one of them. The flower carries a great deal of weight in Indian religious art and poetry, so its various names became names for people: Kamal, Padma and Pankaj are all the same flower under different words, and Rajiv stands beside them. The name came into English-language records with Indian families who settled in Britain, East Africa, the Caribbean and North America, and the spelling used here settled into this form. The same name is written Rajeev at least as often, frequently by the same families on different documents.
Meaning
blue lotus
Sanskrit rajiva names a lotus, usually the blue one, and by extension something streaked or striped. The reading is standard and is not disputed.
How the name formed
- rajiva
- Rajiv
Related forms: Rajeev · Rajib
Pronouncing Rajiv
rah-JEEV
Stress on the second syllable, which holds a long ee. Rajiv and Rajeev are one name: the Devanagari spelling writes that vowel with a single letter, English has no single letter for it, and writers reach either for a plain i or for a doubled ee. Neither version is the more correct one.
Nicknames for Rajiv
Limited
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 198560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1228reached in 1985
- Change vs 2017
- −37.5%5 in 2019, from 8
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.
Rajiv in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rajeev in Hindi — transliteration
- Rajib in Bengali — transliteration
Rajivs among us
people named Rajiv 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
Rajiv 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 settled, specific and pleasant to hand a child: a blue lotus.
- Raj is a ready short form already familiar to English speakers.
- Two syllables, no consonant cluster, and a stress pattern English handles without being taught.
- Rajeev is an equally standard spelling, so the name will be written both ways for life and both will be right.
- The j is the English j rather than the French one, and some readers try the French sound first.
- The name is closely associated with one Indian political family, so it arrives in South Asian company with a set of associations attached.
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Rajiv
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Rajivs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Rajiv are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rajiv in 2025?
- Rajiv is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Rajiv with classmates?
- Rajiv 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 Rajiv? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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