MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Ambika mean?
Ambika began as a respectful Sanskrit address for a mother or good woman. It is a name of Parvati, Shiva’s wife. In the Mahabharata it also names the queen who is Dhritarashtra’s mother.
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
अम्बिका
Conventional spelling
Devanagari
अंबिका
Letter-by-letter: aṃbikā
6,429 records for this spelling. Historical records ↗
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Ambika in Indian usage
32,839 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for girls (98.5%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 32,337 records (98.5%).
- Recorded as male: 502 records (1.5%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 801 |
| 1950s | 3,819 |
| 1960s | 11,927 |
| 1970s | 9,865 |
| 1980s | 4,735 |
| 1990s | 1,555 |
| Other decades | 137 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Kerala | 28,171 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 1,640 |
| Delhi | 1,376 |
| Puducherry | 725 |
| Goa | 247 |
| Sikkim | 240 |
| Manipur | 144 |
| Meghalaya | 127 |
| Other states | 169 |
How to read these numbers
Small counts and a second count where needed are withheld for privacy; an omitted value is not zero. Coverage, dates and suppression.
Recorded abroad
Official births registered in 2025, for the exact spelling shown.
| Jurisdiction | Spelling / recorded sex | Births | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | Ambika / F | 3 | 5,927 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
Explore related lists
Sources
- Historical Indian voter-record totals, v3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Historical usage; CC0 1.0; birth years 1910–2001
- England & Wales 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Ambika; Table_6, C6032 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Ambika; Table_6, C6032
- Monier-Williams, ambikā, p. 83,3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.