Anjali

Meaning of Anjali

Anjali, a feminine given name deriving from the classical Sanskrit term “añjali”—literally “a cupped offering of joined hands” and, by extension, “honor,” “tribute,” or “divine salutation”—carries with it the cultural resonance of the Anjali Mudrā, the gesture of palms pressed together that signals both greeting and reverence across much of South Asia. Employed in Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages for centuries, the name migrated into wider anglophone use through patterns of South Asian diaspora and increased cross-cultural exchange beginning in the late twentieth century; in the United States, Social Security records first capture its appearance in the mid-1960s, after which it has maintained a modest but steady presence, most recently ranking in the mid-800s and averaging roughly eighty births per year. Phonetically rendered to English ears as AHN-juh-lee (/ɑnˈdʒɑli/), the three-syllable structure preserves the original stress pattern while remaining easily articulated within standard American pronunciation norms. As a result, Anjali occupies a linguistic intersection where devotional nuance meets contemporary naming practice, offering parents a choice that is succinct, cross-cultural, and quietly evocative of grace and respectful intent.