MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Ram mean?
The Sanskrit adjective rāma means pleasing, while the personal name evokes the central prince of the Ramayana. Rama's story centres on Ayodhya and his marriage to Sita. The Ramayana follows Rama into exile with Sita and his brother Lakshmana.
Pronunciation
IAST: rāma
/ɾɑːm/
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
राम
Letter-by-letter: rāma
Conventional spelling
Gurmukhi
ਰਾਮ
Conventional spelling
Odia
ରାମ
Conventional spelling
Gujarati
રામ
Conventional spelling
Bengali
রাম
Conventional spelling
Kannada
ರಾಮ
Conventional spelling
Malayalam
രാമ
Conventional spelling
About spelling and pronunciation
Pronunciation in the dictionary
राम: /ɾɑːm/ Wiktionary ↗
Other spellings
- Rama
- Raam
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Ram in Indian usage
3,390,014 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for boys (82.7%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 584,830 records (17.3%).
- Recorded as male: 2,805,184 records (82.7%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 24,604 |
| 1930s | 119,250 |
| 1940s | 332,644 |
| 1950s | 579,176 |
| 1960s | 804,826 |
| 1970s | 697,679 |
| 1980s | 544,578 |
| 1990s | 285,107 |
| Other decades | 2,150 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | 1,604,539 |
| Bihar | 589,743 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 286,268 |
| Haryana | 257,452 |
| Rajasthan | 169,678 |
| Punjab | 105,873 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 94,605 |
| Jharkhand | 84,421 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 45,139 |
| Odisha | 39,674 |
| Delhi | 32,715 |
| Uttarakhand | 30,132 |
| Maharashtra | 12,563 |
| Chandigarh | 9,723 |
| Gujarat | 9,012 |
| Kerala | 5,443 |
| Goa | 2,320 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1,485 |
| Sikkim | 1,425 |
| Assam | 1,424 |
| Meghalaya | 1,344 |
| Karnataka | 1,192 |
| Tripura | 1,012 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 773 |
| Manipur | 687 |
| Puducherry | 474 |
| Nagaland | 427 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 198 |
| Daman and Diu | 144 |
| Other states | 129 |
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 | Ram / M | 20 | 1,359 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
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 Ram; Table_6, C1399 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Ram; Table_6, C1399
- Wiktionary: राम ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
- Monier-Williams, rāma, p. 877,1 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
- Behind the Name: Rama ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.