Kapila
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Kapila is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Sri Lanka than in any other country. Recorded meaning: an Avatara of Visnu (P); name of many men.
- USUnited States1 in 242Kas Kapil(measured from records)
- LKSri Lanka≈1 in 1.6K
- NPNepal≈1 in 2.7Kas Kapil
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Kapila itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Sri Lanka (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 270 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.6K (inferred from the name graph)
≈14,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Sri Lanka, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Kapil in IN India, US United States, ID Indonesia and 4 more.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
an Avatara of Visnu (P); name of many men
Sources 1
- Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kapila counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LK Sri Lanka | — | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Kapila | 20 |
| NP Nepal | — | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.7K | — | Kapil | 48 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈6,000 est. | ≈1 in 45K | — | Kapil | 16 |
| BD Bangladesh | — | ≈4,000 est. | ≈1 in 41K | — | Kapil | 30 |
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈2,000 est. | ≈1 in 114K | — | Kapil | 24 |
| US United States | — | 1,375as Kapil | 1 in 242K | 1.4K | Kapil | 269 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 42K | — | Kapil | 29 |
| GY Guyana | — | 45as Kapil | 1 in 17K | 45 | — | — |
| IN India | #447 | — | — | 2.2K | Kapil | 270 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Kapila is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In pi, Monk, younger brother of Sodhana; learned the three Piṭakas, later slandered the Dhamma and Vinaya, was reborn in Avici, then as the fish Kapiḷamaccha (DhA. iv.37ff.; SnA. ii.305; SA. ii.152; UdA.179f.; ThagA. i.356).
as a nameDictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
In pi, Brahmin Bodhisatta who advised the sons of Okkāka to found Kapilavatthu near his hermitage in Himavā; the city was named after him (DA. i.259f.; MT.132f.; SnA. ii.353).
as a nameDictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
In pi, Kapilanagara, capital of Pañcālaraṭṭha; once ruled by Cūḷani-Brahmadatta, perhaps the city of Abhītatta (PvA.161; Netti.142; Dpv.iii.17; MṬ.127).
as a nameDictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
In pi, a brahmin Bodhisatta, chaplain of King Upacara of Cetiya; connected with the tale of the king swallowed by Avīci (citation in text not visible).
as a nameDictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
In pi, An ancient teacher of philosophy, paired with Kanāda; taught that the soul was limitless (na antavā), likely the Sāṅkhya founder (UdA.339).
as a nameDictionary of Pali Proper Names Vol I (A-Dh)
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Madhur Kapilab. 1942INIndian novelist
- Kusha Kapilab. 1989INIndian social media personality
- Dhruv Kapilab. 2000INbadminton player
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(measured from records)
Attested in 25 sources across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 1.3K | #4,337 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 304 | #69,562 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 275 | #1,831 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 246 | #77,788 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 182 | #93,427 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Kapila mean, and where does it come from?
- an Avatara of Visnu (P); name of many men Recorded by Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names.
- Is Kapila a male or female name?
- Kapila is a male 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 are other forms of the name Kapila?
- In the etymology graph, Kapil is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Kapila have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 14 thousand people named Kapila in Sri Lanka, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kapila.
- How common is the name Kapila?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,375 people named Kapil in 2020, about 1 in 242 thousand residents.
- How common is Kapila compared with other names?
- In India, Kapila is the 447th most common given name of 3,760,348 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kapila?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kapilaThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Kapila” — the 447th most common given name in India. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.