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Azad

#4,559 in 2025Boys' name

Independent, through آزاد

Azad has been given to 380 babies in the U.S. since 1918. In 2025 it ranked #4,559 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 36 recorded.

Babies named Azad, 2025

1 in 151,000

Azad over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Azad: meaning, origin, and history

Independent, through آزاد

Persian

What Azad means

Azad belongs to the name family reached through Azad → آزاد. Its meaning is “independent”.

Origin, language, and formation

Azad is used in Northern Kurdish. Its origins include Persian.

Azad comes through Persian آزاد and Middle Persian 𐭠𐭦𐭠𐭲.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include آزاد.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Northern Kurdish, Azad is pronounced /ɑːˈzɑːd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 380 boys were recorded with the name Azad between 1918 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 36 in 2023; its best national rank was #3,299 in 2023.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,005 in 2020 to #4,559 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,533 in 2015 to #4,559 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Azad?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 151,000
22 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 77,600
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,559
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
104,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Azad 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Azad. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Azads were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Azad was born before 2016 — so the typical Azad is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
36.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
75.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
368
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 36.1% of all recorded uses (137).

Is Azad 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
+159
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,446
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+974
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.38×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
61.1%
Peak was 2023 (36)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,299
2023

Spellings of Azad

Azad is not the most common spelling — Adam is, with 39.6% against Azad's 0.03%.

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 Azad is used

Across 1910–2025, Azad was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 367,978 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Virginia1 in —

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. Azad has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Azad around the world

Where Azad 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
    1996–2025
    #2,014
    in 2025
  • France
    1980–2025
    #706
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2011–2024
    #1,614
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2012–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Azad by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,559
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,446
Best rank ever
#3,299
2023
Peak year
2023
36 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
380
Count in 2025
22

Names similar to Azad

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

AzanAzarAzamAzaiAzariAzaireAzazelAzairAzaAzaanAzaadAzariaAzariasAzarelAzahelAzarionAzarielAzariusAzavierAzavionAzaniAzayahAzaryahAzael

Sibling names for Azad

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 Azad

Top names of 2023, Azad's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2023Boys' names starting with AKurdish Boy NamesKurdish Names