Given name & surname · also Sanskrit
Kumar
“a prince; a male child”
Kumar has Sanskrit meanings connected with a boy, son, or prince and a history in Hindu texts.
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Indian interpretation is “a prince; a male child.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Sanskrit.
How it developed
The name draws on Sanskrit kumāra, meaning “boy, son”.
The story
The Sanskrit form kumāra is attested in the Rig-Veda. In epic literature it names Skanda, Shiva’s son; Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava centers on his birth. The word also came to be used for a prince.
Kumar through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 305
- 305 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1998
- 13 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 2019. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 13 in 1998. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 2,609 as a first name in 2020; 37,459 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Kumar’s family of names
Kumar has a feminine form in Kumari. In Bengali usage, Kumar as a surname is a Roman-alphabet rendering of কুমার.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Kumar
- Kumar SangakkaraSri Lankan cricketerborn 1977
- Pawan Kumar ChamlingIndian politicianborn 1950
- Kumar Mangalam BirlaIndian industrialist (born 1967)
- Kumar SurajIndian cricketerborn 1997
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Kumar, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Sagar
“a king” · “one who is wise”
>99% boys
Naresh
“ruler of men, king” · “a king”
>99% boys
Rajdeep
“the light of the king”
79% boys · 21% girls
Rajan
“a king”
>99% boys
Kunal
Kunal is a masculine given name from Sanskrit.
>99% boys
Tushar
“of the snow”
>99% boys
Kamin
“a joyful child”
>99% boys
Kaushal
“one who is skilled”
>99% boys