Shanti
Feminine · “Sanskrit shanti”
Shanti is given to both — 1,885 girls and 140 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Shantih shantih shantih is the last line of The Waste Land. Eliot took it from the Upanishads, where the word for peace is repeated three times to close a text, and his own note explains it as the formal ending of an Upanishad and a rough equivalent of the peace which passeth understanding.
How old is the name Shanti?
Shanti first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Shanti alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,800 people named Shanti are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shanti most popular?
Shanti peaked in 1972, reaching #1856 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,004 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shanti to Shanti
The story of Shanti
The threefold repetition is formal and it is explained in the tradition as invoking peace on three levels: from the divine, from the natural world and from oneself, or from disturbances of those three kinds. It closes recitations and appears at the beginning and end of many texts. Eliot ended The Waste Land with it in 1922 and added a note, and the poem's enormous influence carried the word into English literary consciousness in a way no translation had. His spelling, shantih, follows an older transliteration convention. The name entered American use in quantity in the 1960s and 70s along with a wider interest in Indian religion, and its peak in 1972 sits precisely in that period. In India the word is entirely ordinary, used in speech, in liturgy and as a name for both sexes.
Meaning
Sanskrit shanti, peace or tranquility
From Sanskrit shanti, peace, calm or the cessation of disturbance, from a root meaning to become quiet. The word closes many Upanishads in a threefold repetition, the shanti mantra, and appears throughout Hindu, Buddhist and Jain liturgy. It is used as a given name across India and entered wider Western use in the 1960s and 70s. It peaks in the American data in 1972.
How the name formed
- shanti
- Shanti
Related forms: Shanti · Shanti
Pronouncing Shanti
SHAHN-tee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The sh is a retroflex sound made with the tongue curled back, which English does not have; an ordinary sh is close enough. The t is dental, made with the tongue against the teeth.
Nicknames for Shanti
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 200377 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1856reached in 1972
- Change vs 2024
- −42.1%11 in 2025, from 19
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.
Shanti in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shanti in Hindi — transliteration
- Shanti in Sanskrit — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Illinois.
Shantis among us
people named Shanti are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Shanti
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 Yasuko test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shanti's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Yasuko climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Yasuko's path sketches the road Shanti is walking now.
Shanti 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
Shanti beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shanti in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and universally positive.
- It is used for both sexes in India.
- The word carries a very large religious and literary tradition.
- Two of its consonants differ from their English equivalents.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s in American use.
- Shanti, Shanty and Shantie all appear in records.
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What they receive
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Shanti
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shantis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Shanti are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shanti in 2025?
- Shanti ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shanti?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Shanti — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shanti with classmates?
- Shanti will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shanti
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shanti? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shanti and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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