Usha

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Asha in IN India, FR France, BD Bangladesh and 5 more, Asa in FI Finland, ID Indonesia, JP Japan and 2 more, Usa in US United States, TZ Tanzania, VE Venezuela and อุษา in TH Thailand.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Usha is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name12K records spelled Usha3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Ushā, Ūshā

• a separate name2.0K records spelled Usha9 spellings in the group

  Also written உஷா, ഉഷ, Uśā, Uṣā, Uṣa

• Greek given name182 records spelled Usha2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Greece, United States

  Also written Ushá

• Georgian given name88 records spelled Usha2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Georgia, United States

  Also written Უშა

26 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Usha is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, weibl. Vom. indischer Herkunft (sans­ krit. usä »Morgendämmerung«). lisi: männl. Vom. biblischer Herkunft (hebr. ‘üzzi, Kurzform von Usiel, »Gott ist Kraft« oder Usija »Jahwe ist Kraft«). Im Alten

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• name of a god; sunrise time

  as a name·A Genealogists Guide to Indian Names A Reference for First Names from India

• In English, Initialism of United States Housing Authority.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In ari, chicken hawk

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 110 years between 1896–2017. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• K. K. Ushab. 1939INIndian judge
• Usha Prashar, Baroness Prasharb. 1948GBParliamentarian (born 1948)
• Usha Rao-Monarib. 1959INDirector, Sustainable Business Advisory - International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Usha Tandonb. 1961INIndian academic and legal scholar
• Usha Thakurb. 1966INIndian politician
• Usha Vanceb. 1986USSecond Lady of the United States since 2025
• Usha RamanathanINIndian human rights activist
• Usha Ramakrishnanresearcher
• Usha MallikUSresearcher (ORCID 0000-0001-7934-1649)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 281 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Usha?

We estimate roughly 56 thousand people bear Usha (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Usha have the most bearers?

Usha is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled asha.

Where is Usha most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Usha is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 275 people — even though India holds more of our records for it.

How common is Usha compared with other names?

In India, Usha is the 14th most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

Is Usha a male or female name?

Usha is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Usha mean?

Recorded meaning: Sanskrit: ‘dawn’, personified as the daughter of heaven, the sister of the solar gods and of night, the wife of the god Rudra; said to be very beautiful, the friend of men, the bringer of wealth, and…