Name Awesome

Akiva

#1,466 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Form of Yaakov

Akiva has been given to 2,932 babies in the U.S. since 1961. In 2025 it ranked #1,466 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2020, with 145 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.

Babies named Akiva, 2025

1 in 27,400

Akiva over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Akiva over time

In 2025, Akiva went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

19612025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Akiva: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Yaakov

Hebrew

What Akiva means

Akiva is a form of Yaakov.

Origin, language, and formation

Akiva is used in English. Its origins include Hebrew.

Akiva comes through Hebrew יַעֲקֹב and Hebrew יַעֲקֹב‬.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Yaakov.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,794 boys were recorded with the name Akiva between 1961 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 145 in 2020; its best national rank was #1,263 in 2020.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,263 in 2020 to #1,466 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,020 in 2015 to #1,466 in 2025.

In the United States, 138 girls were recorded with the name Akiva between 1973 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 11 in 1998; its best national rank was #6,085 in 1973.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Akiva?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 27,400
121 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 14,100
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,466
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
18,992 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Akiva sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 5002%

Put another way: gather 18,992 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Akiva. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Akivas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Akiva was born before 2012 — so the typical Akiva is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
29.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
75.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,794
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 29.9% of all recorded uses (835).

Is Akiva 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
+28
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−203
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+554
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.70×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
83.4%
Peak was 2020 (145)
Years since peak
5
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,263
2020

Spellings of Akiva

Akiva is not the most common spelling — Alva is, with 44.2% against Akiva's 11.0%.

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 Akiva is used

Across 2016–2025, Akiva was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 1,449 boys, against 1 in 7,007 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in 100,000).

169 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 1,449
  2. 2New York1 in 2,128
  3. 3Maryland1 in 5,556
  4. 4California1 in 25,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 33,333
  6. 6Illinois1 in 50,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 100,000
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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.

Akiva around the world

Where Akiva 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
    1997–2025
    #1,897
    in 2025
  • France
    2003–2024
    #5,178
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1994–2024
    #2,550
    in 2024

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 Akiva

People whose public names include Akiva, 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.

Akiva in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Akiva. Linked forms have their own page here.

Akiba

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Akiva by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,466
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 203
Best rank ever
#1,263
2020
Peak year
2020
145 that year
First recorded
1961
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,794
Count in 2025
121

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#6,085
1973
Peak year
1998
11 that year
First recorded
1973
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
138
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Akiva

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

AkiraAkilAkiliAkimAkingAkioAkinShivaAkitoAkiAkifAkiroAkirAkielAkiemAkilanAkiaAkidaIvaAkihiroAkilesAkinolaKivaOiva

Names with a curve like Akiva

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

YasinIssaNoamShalomDovidYakovIlanAymanEitanUmarRenzoOziel

Sibling names for Akiva

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 Akiva

Top names of 2020, Akiva's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2020Boys' names starting with AHebrew Boy Names