Name Awesome

Rafiq

Boys' name

Friend

Rafiq has been given to 412 babies in the U.S. since 1975. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1995, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Rafiq, 2024

1 in 418,000

Rafiq over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rafiq: meaning, origin, and history

Friend

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Rafiq means

Rafiq means “friend”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Rafiq is used in Arabic, Azerbaijani, Urdu and Bengali.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ra.ˈfiːq/ for Rafiq.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 412 boys were recorded with the name Rafiq between 1975 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1995; its best national rank was #3,214 in 1976.

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 Rafiq?

Rafiq had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 418,000
8 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 215,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
289,633 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rafiq 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 2024 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 289,633 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rafiq. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rafiqs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rafiq was born before 1997 — so the typical Rafiq is around 28 today.

Median birth year
1997
About 28 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
29.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
43.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
412
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 29.9% of all recorded uses (123).

Is Rafiq 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1995 (19)
Years since peak
30
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
44.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,214
1976

Spellings of Rafiq

Rafiq is not the most common spelling — Tariq is, with 23.8% against Rafiq's 1.4%.

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 Rafiq is used

Across 1910–2025, Rafiq was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 120,686 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 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. Rafiq has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rafiq around the world

Where Rafiq 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
    1996–2022
    #4,790
    in 2022
  • France
    2001–2002
    #3,505
    in 2002
  • South Australia
    2011–2011
    #784
    in 2011

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

Rafiq by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,214
1976
Peak year
1995
19 that year
First recorded
1975
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
412
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rafiq

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

RafayRaffiRafanRafiRafaRafalRafelRafsanRaffertyRafeRaffaelRafealRafordRafidRafikRaffaeleTawfiqRafielRafatRaferRafeeqShafiqRafuelRaf

Sibling names for Rafiq

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 Rafiq

Top names of 1995, Rafiq's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1976Boys' names starting with R