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Akilah

#9,472 in 2025Girls' name

Alternate transcription of Aqila

Akilah has been given to 3,012 babies in the U.S. since 1972. In 2025 it ranked #9,472 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1993, with 115 recorded.

Babies named Akilah, 2025

1 in 332,000

Akilah over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Akilah: meaning, origin, and history

Alternate transcription of Aqila

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Akilah means

Akilah is a alternate transcription of Aqila.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Aqila.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,012 girls were recorded with the name Akilah between 1972 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 115 in 1993; its best national rank was #1,299 in 1978.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,547 in 2020 to #9,472 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #6,243 in 2015 to #9,472 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Akilah?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 161,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#9,472
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Akilah sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Akilah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Akilahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Akilah was born before 1993 — so the typical Akilah is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
29.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
30.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,012
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 29.0% of all recorded uses (874).

Is Akilah rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,492
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−4,925
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,229
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.50×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
8.7%
Peak was 1993 (115)
Years since peak
32
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,299
1978

Spellings of Akilah

Akilah is not the most common spelling — Aliyah is, with 16.5% against Akilah's 1.0%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Akilah is used

Across 1910–2025, Akilah was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 80,493 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 33,333
  2. 2New York1 in 33,333
  3. 3California1 in 50,000
  4. 4District of Columbia1 in 50,000
  5. 5Illinois1 in 50,000
  6. 6Florida1 in 100,000
  7. 7Maryland1 in 100,000
  8. 8Michigan1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Akilah has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Akilah around the world

Where Akilah ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2024
    #5,892
    in 2024
  • France
    2025–2025
    #5,228
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–1993
    #2,149
    in 1993

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Akilah

People whose public names include Akilah, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Akilah by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#9,472
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 4,925
Best rank ever
#1,299
1978
Peak year
1993
115 that year
First recorded
1972
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,012
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Akilah

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SkylahKailahLeilahAkiraNailahAkiyahAkirahAnylahShylahKeilahKaylahMilahLailahAkikoJamilahJailahLaylahAkilaAylahLelahLeylahShilahJaelahAkina

Names with a curve like Akilah

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Akilah, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

NishaDionnaArinChasidyYaniraArikaKeturahTaviaBethanieRebeckaTorieArianne

Sibling names for Akilah

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Akilah

Top names of 1993, Akilah's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1978Girls' names starting with A