Roshni
Feminine · “light”
Alexander married a woman from Bactria whose name the Greeks wrote Roxana. In her own language it was Roshanak, and the root is the Persian word for bright. Roshni is that same root, three thousand kilometres east and twenty-three centuries later, still meaning light.
How old is the name Roshni?
Roshni first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Roshni alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 1,000 people named Roshni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roshni most popular?
Roshni peaked in 1998, reaching #2651 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 9,281 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From raoxsna to Roshni
The story of Roshni
Persian supplied northern India with its literary and courtly vocabulary for several centuries, and Urdu is the clearest result — a language with an Indic grammar and an enormous Persian and Arabic lexicon, particularly for anything to do with poetry, love, government or light. Roshni belongs to that layer. So do a great many of the names in the region: Roshan, Gulzar, Shabnam, Parveen, Naseem. The word itself goes back to Old Persian raoxsna, bright, which is what the Greeks were transcribing when they wrote down the name of Alexander's Bactrian wife. The name and the noun have never separated: a Hindi speaker hearing Roshni hears the word for light.
Meaning
light, brightness
Hindi and Urdu roshni, light, borrowed from Persian roshan, bright or luminous. The same root stands behind Roshan, Roshanara and the Old Persian name the Greeks transcribed as Roxana. It is an ordinary current word in three languages.
How the name formed
- raoxsna
- roshan
- roshni
Related forms: Roshan · Roshni
Pronouncing Roshni
ROSH-nee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the o of gone rather than of go. English speakers often say ROASH-nee with a long o, which is understood but is not the vowel.
Nicknames for Roshni
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 199851 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2651reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- +40.0%7 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.
Roshni in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roshan in Persian — related form
- Roshni in Urdu — transliteration
Roshnis among us
people named Roshni are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Roshni
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 Cece test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Roshni's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cece climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cece's path sketches the road Roshni is walking now.
Roshni 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
Roshni beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roshni in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is an ordinary current word in three languages.
- Two syllables with nothing hard for an English speaker.
- It shares a root with one of the best-known names in ancient history.
- The first vowel is regularly lengthened by English speakers, which changes the word.
- Roshni and Roshini are both transliterated, so the spelling will occasionally be queried.
- Outside South Asian families the name will need repeating more often than most.
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What they receive
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Roshni
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Roshnis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Roshni are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roshni in 2025?
- Roshni ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Roshni?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Roshni — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roshni with classmates?
- Roshni will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roshni
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roshni? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Roshni and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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