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Rahman

#4,352 in 2025Boys' name

Merciful

Rahman has been given to 1,286 babies in the U.S. since 1959. In 2025 it ranked #4,352 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1976, with 52 recorded.

Babies named Rahman, 2025

1 in 138,000

Rahman over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rahman: meaning, origin, and history

Merciful

Arabic

What Rahman means

Rahman means “merciful”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rahman is used in Indonesian. Its origins include Arabic.

Rahman comes through Arabic رَحْمٰن.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,286 boys were recorded with the name Rahman between 1959 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 52 in 1976; its best national rank was #1,206 in 1976.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,996 in 2020 to #4,352 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,848 in 2015 to #4,352 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 Rahman?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 138,000
24 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 71,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,352
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
95,747 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rahman 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 95,747 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rahman. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rahmans were born

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

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
24.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
39.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,286
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 24.2% of all recorded uses (311).

Is Rahman 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
+656
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−356
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+496
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.20×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
46.2%
Peak was 1976 (52)
Years since peak
49
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,206
1976

Spellings of Rahman

Rahman is not the most common spelling — Roman is, with 36.1% against Rahman's 0.44%.

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 Rahman is used

Across 1910–2025, Rahman was most concentrated in District of Columbia — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 353,730 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1District of Columbia1 in 100,000
  2. 2New Jersey1 in 100,000
  3. 3California1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5New York1 in —
  6. 6Ohio1 in —
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 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. Rahman has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rahman around the world

Where Rahman 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
    #2,952
    in 2025
  • France
    1981–2024
    #3,145
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,550
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1968–1968
    #520
    in 1968

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.

Rahman by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,352
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 356
Best rank ever
#1,206
1976
Peak year
1976
52 that year
First recorded
1959
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,286
Count in 2025
24

Names similar to Rahman

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

RaheimRahmirRahmelRahimKalmanFermanLuqmanHarmanColmanBowmanCaymanRahilRahulZalmanRaheemRahiemSalmanOthmanRahsaanChapmanSolomanUsmanWhitmanRaheen

Sibling names for Rahman

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 Rahman

Top names of 1976, Rahman's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1976Boys' names starting with RIndonesian Boy NamesIndonesian NamesPashto Boy Names