Suraj
Masculine · “the sun”
Suraj and the English word sun are the same word. Sanskrit surya, Latin sol, Greek helios, Welsh haul, English sun and Gothic sauil all descend from one Indo-European root for the sun, and the family holds together across six thousand years and half a planet.
How old is the name Suraj?
Suraj first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Suraj alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,100 people named Suraj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Suraj most popular?
Suraj peaked in 1995, reaching #1914 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 4,532 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Where it comes from
From surya to Suraj
The story of Suraj
Surya is one of the oldest deities in the Indian record, worshipped in the Rigveda and still honored at the great sun temple at Konark; the Gayatri mantra, among the most-recited verses in Hinduism, addresses the sun. Suraj is the modern Hindi and Urdu descendant of the word, used as an ordinary given name across northern India and Nepal rather than as a specifically religious one. It reached United States records with South Asian migration and had its best year in 1995. That the same root also lies under the English word for the star is a fact of comparative philology rather than of naming, but it is a true one.
Meaning
the sun
Hindi suraj, from Sanskrit surya, the sun and the sun god. The Indo-European root behind it is reconstructed as a word for the sun with two competing stems, which is why some daughter languages have an s form and others an l form; Latin sol and Sanskrit surya are the same word with different stem endings. The meaning has never changed in any of them.
How the name formed
- surya
- suraj
- Suraj
Related forms: Suraj · Surya · Suraj · Suraj
Pronouncing Suraj
SOO-rahj
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The final j is a full consonant, not the zh of French; English speakers who soften it produce a different word.
Nicknames for Suraj
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 200354 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1914reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- +62.5%13 in 2025, 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.
Suraj in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Suraj in Hindi — same name
- Surya in Sanskrit — related form
- Suraj in Nepali — same name
- Suraj in Marathi — same name
Surajs among us
people named Suraj are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Suraj
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 Cheston test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Suraj's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cheston climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cheston's path sketches the road Suraj is walking now.
Suraj 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
Suraj beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Suraj in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is a single concrete word in a living language.
- Raj is a ready short form with an independent life of its own.
- Five letters, two syllables, and easy for English speakers.
- Sooraj and Suraj are both used transliterations.
- The final consonant tends to be softened in English mouths.
- It is close to Suresh and Sujay and gets confused with both.
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What they receive
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Suraj
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Surajs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Suraj are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Suraj in 2025?
- Suraj ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Suraj?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Suraj — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Suraj with classmates?
- Suraj will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Suraj
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Suraj? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Suraj and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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