Ravi
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · “sun”
Ravi is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,605 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Ravi is the Sanskrit word for the sun, and it has been a name in India for as long as Sanskrit has been written down. Two syllables, five letters, no silent anything — it lands quickly in almost any language. The sitarist Ravi Shankar carried it onto Western concert stages and record sleeves in the mid-twentieth century, which is how a great many English speakers first heard it.
How old is the name Ravi?
Ravi first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Ravi alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 3,500 people named Ravi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ravi most popular?
Ravi peaked in 1986, reaching #1041 nationally. Today it ranks #1244, 203 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Ravi appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Ravi (Sanskrit) to Ravi
The story of Ravi
Ravi comes straight out of Sanskrit, where it names the sun and, in classical astrology, the sun as a planetary body. From Sanskrit it passed into Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Nepali, sometimes on its own and sometimes as the front half of longer names such as Ravindra ('lord of the sun') and Ravichandran. It is also the name of one of the five rivers of the Punjab, which runs from the Himalayas through northern India and into Pakistan. Indian musicians, writers and film-makers took the name abroad through the twentieth century, and it settled into English-speaking countries with its spelling and sound intact.
Meaning
sun
From Sanskrit रवि (ravi), 'sun'. In Hindu tradition it is one of the names of Surya, the sun; the same root gives Hindi ravivār, 'Sunday'.
How the name formed
- RaviSanskrit
- Ravindra
- RabiBengali
- RaviEnglish
Related forms: रवि · रवि / Ravi · Rabi / Robi · ரவி / Ravi · రవి / Ravi · Ravindra
Pronouncing Ravi
RUH-vee
The Sanskrit short 'a' is closer to the vowel in 'sofa', so RUH-vee is the traditional sound; RAH-vee is widely used in English and is easily understood. Stress falls on the first syllable either way. What tends to need a gentle correction is RAV-ee, rhyming with 'savvy'.
Nicknames for Ravi
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
- 1963
- Most boys named
- 2024167 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1041reached in 1986
- Change vs 2024
- −4.2%160 in 2025, from 167
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.
Ravi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- रवि in Sanskrit — transliteration
- रवि / Ravi in Hindi — same name
- Rabi / Robi in Bengali — spelling variant
- ரவி / Ravi in Tamil — same name
- రవి / Ravi in Telugu — same name
- Ravindra in Hindi — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Massachusetts, California, Florida.
Ravis among us
people named Ravi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,675 born in 2025 was named Ravi
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 Christine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ravi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christine climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christine's path sketches the road Ravi is walking now.
Ravi is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ravi is headed
Ravi looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 51% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ravi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ravi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, unambiguous meaning — 'sun' in Sanskrit — with an unbroken record of use going back to the earliest Sanskrit texts.
- Phonetic spelling: five letters that almost nobody has to spell twice, and no competing variant forms to choose between.
- Works in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English without changing shape, which matters for a family spread across countries.
- Stands alone as a full name and doubles as the natural short form of longer names like Ravindra, so it fits either plan.
- English speakers sometimes reach for RAV-ee, rhyming with 'savvy', on first sight. One correction usually does it, but he will make that correction fairly often.
- The name is uncommon enough here that he will likely be the only one in his class, and it arrives with a clear cultural home in South Asia. For some families that is exactly the point; for others it is worth thinking about how the name will be read.
- It shares its sound with several near neighbors — Ravin, Rafi, Ravon — so occasional mishearings on the phone are part of the deal.
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What they receive
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Ravi
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · #1244 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ravis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Ravi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ravi in 2025?
- Ravi ranks #1244 among US boy names in 2025, with 160 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ravi?
- About 1 in every 10,675 US boys born in 2025 was named Ravi — 160 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ravi with classmates?
- Ravi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ravi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Wisdom#1244 · Oakland#1244 · Kole#1244 · Cedar#1244 · Rian#1244 · Jet#1244 · Cory#1244 · Mazi#1241
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ravi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ravi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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