Gandhi

9,128 people in the United States were counted with the surname Gandhi in the 2020 census, making it the 3,798th most common in the country. That is about one person in 32,700.

By the numbers

People: 9,128
Rank: 3,798th
How common: 1 in 32,700
Per 100,000: 3.1

Where the name comes from

Origin India

from Sanskrit गन्ध (“perfume”). Originally, a trader in perfume.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Gandhi described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 93.2%
White, not Hispanic 3.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 2.3%
Hispanic or Latino 0.8%
Black, not Hispanic 0.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.3%

Notable people called Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)Indian independence activist
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)Prime Minister of India (1966-1977; 1980-1984)
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991)Prime Minister of India
Sonia Gandhi (born 1946)Indian politician
Rahul Gandhi (born 1970)Indian politician (1970-present)
Kasturba Gandhi (1869–1944)wife of Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian leader of British era
Sanjay Gandhi (1946–1980)Indian politician
Maneka Gandhi (born 1956)Indian politician and activist

People named Gandhi with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Gandhi

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.