MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Dev mean?
Deva is the Sanskrit deity noun, with Dev the familiar modern form used independently or within names such as Devraj. Devi is the corresponding feminine deity word.
Pronunciation
IAST: deva
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
देव
Letter-by-letter: deva
Conventional spelling
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Dev in Indian usage
170,162 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Used for both boys and girls in these historical records; the recorded sex does not determine anyone’s identity.
- Recorded as female: 38,318 records (22.5%).
- Recorded as male: 131,844 records (77.5%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 1,462 |
| 1930s | 6,305 |
| 1940s | 15,376 |
| 1950s | 26,273 |
| 1960s | 35,938 |
| 1970s | 35,187 |
| 1980s | 29,300 |
| 1990s | 20,186 |
| Other decades | 135 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Bihar | 50,879 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 35,152 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 14,700 |
| Rajasthan | 10,944 |
| Punjab | 10,538 |
| Maharashtra | 9,486 |
| Jharkhand | 8,926 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 7,982 |
| Haryana | 6,900 |
| Delhi | 6,625 |
| Uttarakhand | 5,583 |
| Sikkim | 1,193 |
| Chandigarh | 457 |
| Gujarat | 278 |
| Other states | 519 |
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 | Dev / M | 33 | 934 |
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 Dev; Table_6, C943 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Dev; Table_6, C943
- Monier-Williams, deva, p. 492,2 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
- Behind the Name: Dev ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
- Wiktionary: देव ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.