Anjali — Meaning, Origin & Everything to Know

Anjali is an Sanskrit name whose meaning — 'offering; salutation with folded hands' — gives it a quiet depth beyond its sound. Because it rests on Sanskrit rather than passing fashion, Anjali carries a sense of history that many parents look for. For a daughter, Anjali carries a sense of devotion, trust and spiritual depth while staying simple to say and spell.

What Does the Name Anjali Mean?

The name Anjali translates as 'offering; salutation with folded hands', a meaning inherited from Sanskrit.

The early history of Anjali belongs to the Sanskrit world, where 'offering; salutation with folded hands' was a quality worth naming a child for. As it travelled, Anjali kept its 'offering; salutation with folded hands' sense intact, handed down to honour relatives and express a hope for the child.

Modern parents tend to hear Anjali as fresh rather than old-fashioned, with 'offering; salutation with folded hands' giving it a positive, aspirational edge. That mix of everyday wearability and real meaning is a large part of why Anjali found favour around the 2010s.

Anjali carries connotations of devotion, trust and spiritual depth; the Sanskrit background gives that symbolism somewhere to stand.

Origin & Etymology of Anjali

Sanskrit · Sanskrit

Trace Anjali back and you reach Sanskrit and the meaning 'offering; salutation with folded hands'. Anjali spread outward with migration, recognised now well beyond its Sanskrit origin and worn across very different cultures.

Anjali holds a meaningful place in the Sanskrit tradition, its sense of devotion, trust and spiritual depth tied to long-standing cultural values.

How Sanskrit names are chosen

In Hindu practice the name arrives through a ritual, Namkaran, one of the sixteen samskaras that mark the stages of a life. The starting sound is not free: an astrologer identifies the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment of birth, divides it into its four padas, and reads off the syllables considered auspicious for the quarter the child was born in — the family then chooses a name beginning with one of them. Other recognised routes exist alongside it, including a devata-nama honouring the family deity or the god of the birth month. The reasoning behind the ritual is that a name aligned to the birth star will sit correctly with the child for life.

Sanskrit spellings often flatten in English: long and short vowels and retroflex consonants that are distinct in Devanagari collapse into the same Latin letters.

How to Pronounce Anjali

AN-ja-li — Anjali is usually said in 3 parts — AN · ja · li. As a Sanskrit-rooted name, sound every vowel fully and evenly — there are no silent letters.