Explore the Family Name Arya

The meaning of Arya

Indian (northern states): from Sanskrit ārya ‘Aryan man; honorable man’. In the Punjab this is the name of a Jat clan. Some characteristic forenames: Indian Ram, Satya, Arun, Brahm, Ravi, Sarla, Sudhir, Sumit, Suresh, Veena, Yashpal, Ajay.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Arya in the United States?

The surname Arya has considerably increased in popularity over a span of 10 years according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, Arya was ranked as the 37,534th most common surname in the United States with a count of 558 individuals bearing this name. However, by 2010, it had climbed up to be the 24,961st most common surname. This represents a significant change of 33.5 percent. The proportion of people with the Arya surname per 100,000 also increased from 0.21 in 2000 to 0.34 in 2010, representing a rise of 61.9 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#37,534	#24,961	33.5%
Count	558	996	78.49%
Proportion per 100k	0.21	0.34	61.9%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Arya

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the Arya surname identify as Asian/Pacific Islander. This group increased from 74.55 percent of all Aryas in 2000 to 76.71 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of Aryas identifying as White decreased from 17.03 percent to 13.55 percent during the same period. Similarly, the percentage of Aryas identifying as Hispanic slightly dropped from 2.69 percent to 2.61 percent. Interestingly, there was an emergence of African American Aryas in 2010, accounting for 2.11 percent of the total, and a small percentage of 0.60 percent identified as American Indian and Alaskan Native.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	74.55%	76.71%	2.9%
White	17.03%	13.55%	-20.43%
Two or More Races	5.38%	4.42%	-17.84%
Hispanic	2.69%	2.61%	-2.97%
Black	0%	2.11%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.6%	0%