NAMES ACROSS GENERATIONS
Indian names across generations
Names of people born in each decade, from historical records of adults; not baby-name rankings.
Names change between birth cohorts
Naampy v3 contains historical Indian electoral-roll records with birth years from 1910 to 2001 in our filtered tables. Here we compare the complete 1950s–1990s decades. The lists rank names with editorial meanings in our catalogue, rather than every name in India.
The cohorts have different sizes. Dividing a name’s records by all records for that decade makes the comparison more useful. A value of 500 per 100,000 means that the name accounts for 0.5% of that cohort’s records.
Leading names in each decade
Two names, different histories
Abhishek
In Naampy v3’s Indian records, Abhishek’s share was about 130 times as high in the 1990s birth cohort as in the 1960s.
Meena
In Naampy v3’s Indian records, Meena’s share was about 1.9 times as high in the 1960s birth cohort as in the 1990s.
Rising names
Shares at least doubled from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Vintage names
Shares fell by at least two thirds between the same cohorts.
Guess the birth decade
Can you spot the cohort in which each name had its largest share?
Download all published birth-decade counts and cohort shares as CSV. Missing cells are omitted.
Source and method
Source: Naampy v3, released 10 June 2025, CC0. The records come from historical Indian electoral rolls and chiefly describe adults. Birth years are filtered to 1910–2001; the partial 2000s cohort is excluded from comparisons. Age fields may contain errors, and coverage differs by place and cohort. These are records, not counts of unique people or a representative national survey.
Rankings and quiz answers use only the Latin-script table and indexable profiles with editorial meanings. Gender groups come from the name’s editorial gender, and describe names rather than the identity of any bearer. Each name can group the spellings listed on its profile. Native-script tables are separate views and are never added to these totals.
A share is a name’s published decade count divided by all records in that decade, multiplied by 100,000. Only counts of at least 100 are used. Missing and grouped withheld cells are excluded from charts and comparisons; an omission does not mean zero. Shares and ratios are rates, not record counts. Full methodology.
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 43,301,485 |
| 1960s | 73,128,909 |
| 1970s | 99,081,374 |
| 1980s | 125,270,057 |
| 1990s | 92,857,366 |
Questions about the generation lists
Are these India’s baby-name rankings?
No. These are names in historical records of adults, grouped by recorded birth decade. They do not show what parents chose in a recent year.
Why adjust for cohort size?
The decades contain different numbers of records. Comparing records per 100,000 of each cohort helps separate a change in the name’s share from a change in the total number of records.
Why are the 2000s missing?
Our birth-year filter ends in 2001. Two years cannot be compared fairly with a complete decade, so the 2000s are excluded here.
What does “vintage” mean here?
The name’s share fell by at least two thirds between the 1960s and 1990s cohorts, with at least 1,000 records in the 1960s. The term does not predict present-day use.