MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Keshav mean?
Keśava is an established name of Krishna and Vishnu associated lexically with keśa, hair. Devotional tradition also connects it with Krishna's defeat of the demon Keshi.
Pronunciation
IAST: keśava
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
केशव
Letter-by-letter: keśava
Conventional spelling
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Keshav in Indian usage
89,779 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for boys (96.5%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 3,143 records (3.5%).
- Recorded as male: 86,636 records (96.5%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1930s | 1,727 |
| 1940s | 5,123 |
| 1950s | 9,403 |
| 1960s | 14,798 |
| 1970s | 16,951 |
| 1980s | 20,229 |
| 1990s | 21,214 |
| Other decades | 334 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | 37,521 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 16,232 |
| Bihar | 12,730 |
| Rajasthan | 7,116 |
| Jharkhand | 3,136 |
| Uttarakhand | 2,853 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 2,740 |
| Haryana | 2,581 |
| Punjab | 1,823 |
| Maharashtra | 1,623 |
| Goa | 708 |
| Delhi | 224 |
| Chandigarh | 162 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 155 |
| Other states | 175 |
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 | Keshav / M | 18 | 1,466 |
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 Keshav; Table_6, C1502 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Keshav; Table_6, C1502
- Monier-Williams, keśava, p. 310,3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.