Rama
Feminine · “pleasing”
Rama is given to both — 1,130 girls and 276 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Every king of Thailand since 1782 has been called Rama. The dynasty took the name from the hero of the Ramayana by way of the Thai retelling, so a Hindu prince from an Indian epic has been the throne-name of a Buddhist monarchy for nine reigns and counting.
How old is the name Rama?
Rama first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Rama alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 900 people named Rama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rama most popular?
Rama peaked in 1897, reaching #1555 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,362 places below that high. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rama to Rama
The story of Rama
The Ramayana runs to about twenty-four thousand verses and is one of the two great Sanskrit epics; Rama is its hero, a prince exiled for fourteen years whose wife is abducted, and in later tradition the seventh avatar of Vishnu. The story traveled with trade and with Hinduism across mainland and island Southeast Asia, and was retold in Thai as the Ramakien, in Javanese, in Khmer, in Lao and in Malay, in each case adapted rather than translated. That is how a Thai Buddhist dynasty came to take the name: the epic had been local for centuries by then. In India the name is also a greeting and an exclamation, said far more often than it is given.
Meaning
pleasing; dark
Sanskrit rama means pleasing or delightful, and also dark or black — both senses are documented and both are applied to the god, who is conventionally depicted with dark blue skin. The word is ordinary Sanskrit rather than a name-word, which is normal for the older Indian names.
How the name formed
- rama
- Rama
Related forms: Rama · Ram · Phra Ram
Pronouncing Rama
RAH-mah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with both vowels open. RAY-muh, with the a of ray, is the English reading of the letters and is not how the name is said anywhere it is native.
Nicknames for Rama
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
- 1897
- Most girls named
- 201036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1555reached in 1897
- Change vs 2023
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Rama in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rama in Sanskrit — same name
- Ram in Hindi — same name
- Phra Ram in Thai — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Ramas among us
people named Rama are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Rama
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rama
- #10917
- Rama on the 2025 chart
- #936
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rama went to 8 girls in 2025, but Ramah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 24, which makes it the 936th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,981 places above the chart.
- Ramah16
- Rama8
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Rama itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Rama 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
Rama beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rama in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Sanskrit meaning in a word that is still ordinary in several languages.
- Four letters, two syllables, easy in English, Spanish and Arabic alike.
- It is one of the most recognizable names in the world across South and Southeast Asia.
- It is the name of a major god, which carries real weight in Hindu families and none at all elsewhere.
- English speakers will say the first vowel as in ray unless told otherwise.
- It leans to boys without settling, so a form will guess and will sometimes guess wrong.
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What they receive
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Rama
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ramas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Rama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rama?
- Rama is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ramah is the more common one — 16 births in 2025 against 8 for Rama.
- How popular is the name Rama in 2025?
- Rama ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rama?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Rama — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rama with classmates?
- Rama will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rama
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rama? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rama and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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