MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Rishi mean?
Vedic tradition calls the seers of sacred hymns ṛṣis. The name therefore carries a literary association with inspired knowledge.
Pronunciation
IAST: ṛṣi
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
ऋषि
Letter-by-letter: ṛṣi
Conventional spelling
Tamil
ரிஷி
Conventional spelling
Devanagari
रिषी
Letter-by-letter: riṣī
4,102 records for this spelling. Historical records ↗
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Rishi in Indian usage
49,721 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for boys (96%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 1,981 records (4%).
- Recorded as male: 47,740 records (96%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 859 |
| 1950s | 2,499 |
| 1960s | 5,124 |
| 1970s | 9,360 |
| 1980s | 15,499 |
| 1990s | 16,043 |
| Other decades | 337 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | 18,638 |
| Haryana | 8,664 |
| Bihar | 8,114 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 4,718 |
| Rajasthan | 2,302 |
| Delhi | 1,940 |
| Jharkhand | 1,476 |
| Odisha | 1,161 |
| Uttarakhand | 1,077 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 499 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 418 |
| Kerala | 290 |
| Chandigarh | 258 |
| Other states | 166 |
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 | Rishi / M | 28 | 1,066 |
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 Rishi; Table_6, C1090 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Rishi; Table_6, C1090
- Monier-Williams, ṛṣi, p. 226,3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.