# Akhtar (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/akhtar/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys and girls |
| Origin | Persian |
| Meaning | “star”, “planet”, “un-stars” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Akhter, Aktar, Akter |
| US babies named this | not in the US data |
| Boys / girls in the US | not in the US data |
| Babies in England and Wales | 10, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Hindustani (through Hindi अख़्तर (axtar) / Urdu اَخْتَر (axtar)) and/or directly from Classical Persian اَخْتَر (axtar, “star”), in turn from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭧𐭲𐭫 (ʾhtl /⁠axtar⁠/), an ancient backformation from 𐭠𐭯𐭠𐭧𐭲𐭫 (ʾpʾhtl /⁠abāxtar⁠/, “planet”), due to a mistaken folk etymology that the first element ab- was a negative suffix, since Zoroastrianism considers the planets to be nefarious "un-stars" due to their astronomically odd behavior. Doublet of Tara and sitara.

## What it means

Akhtar is grouped under star.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 4 | 2,357 |
| 2000 | 3 | 3,036 |
| 2006 | 3 | 4,052 |

## People named Akhtar

- Akhtar Mansour, 2nd leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
- Akhtar Hameed Khan, Development activist, social scientist (1914–1999)
- Akhtar Hussain, field hockey player (1926–1987)
- Akhtar Rasool, field hockey player

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.