Given name & surname
Narayan
“son of man”
Narayan is used as a given name and a surname. One Sanskrit interpretation is “son of man.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Sanskrit interpretation is “son of man.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Sanskrit.
How it developed
It comes from the Sanskrit word nara, meaning “man.”
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1973. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Narayan through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 273
- 273 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2014
- 21 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −69%
- Cooling
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 2022. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 21 in 2014. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,425 as a first name in 2020; 3,228 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.
Narayan’s family of names
In English usage, Narayan shares an earlier linguistic root with NARAYANA. Narayan has a related form in Narain.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Narayan
- Narayan DesaiIndian writer and activist1924–2015
- Narayan GopalNepalese singer (1939–1990)
- Narayan Dasfootballerborn 1993
- Narayan HemchandraIndian writer1855–1904
- Narayan RaneIndian politicianborn 1952
- Narayan DebnathIndian comics artist, writer and illustrator1925–2022
- Narayan Vaman TilakMarathi poet from Maharashtra, India, and a famous convert to Christianity1861–1919
- Narayan Meghaji LokhandeFounder of labour movement, Activist of Satyshodhak Samaj1848–1897
- Narayan Sadoba KajrolkarIndian independence activist, Gandhian and social worker
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Narayan, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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