Rakiya

Girls' name

Form of Ruqayya

Rakiya has been given to 428 babies in the U.S. since 1989. 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 2008, with 32 recorded.

Babies named Rakiya, 2024

1 in 557,000

Rakiya over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rakiya: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Ruqayya

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Rakiya means

Rakiya is a form of Ruqayya.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Rakiya is used in Hausa.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Rakiya → Ruqayya. The family’s meaning is “rise, ascent or spell, charm, incantation”, recorded in the naming reference for Ruqayya.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ruqayya.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 428 girls were recorded with the name Rakiya between 1989 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 32 in 2008; its best national rank was #4,733 in 2008.

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.

U.S. Social Security Administration: national name data and limitations

How common is Rakiya?

Rakiya 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 557,000; 6 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only: 1 in 270,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 386,177 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Rakiya 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 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 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rakiya. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rakiyas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rakiya was born before 2005 — so the typical Rakiya is around 20 today.

Median birth year: 2005; About 20 years old
Biggest decade: 2000s; 48.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 74.8%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 428; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2000s — 48.1% of all recorded uses (206).

Is Rakiya 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 2008 (32)
Years since peak: 17; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 35.7% average annual change
Best rank ever: #4,733; 2008

Spellings of Rakiya

Rakiya is not the most common spelling — Aniya is, with 7.2% against Rakiya's 0.17%.

Aniya7.2%18,085
Raina5.0%12,453
Janiya4.4%11,103
Aliya4.4%11,075
Nakia3.5%8,738
Amiya3.5%8,672
Kaiya3.4%8,587
Raya3.2%8,003

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 Rakiya is used

Across 1910–2025, Rakiya was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 693,073 across all states with data. It was least common in Illinois (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Georgia1 in —
2Illinois1 in —

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

Rakiya around the world

Where Rakiya 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
1997–2007
#4,294
in 2007

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Rakiya by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #4,733; 2008
Peak year: 2008; 32 that year
First recorded: 1989
Last recorded: 2024
All-time count: 428
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Rakiya

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

Rakiyah Raksha Ramiya Raziya Dariya Jaziya Soriya Nariya Aleiya Ashiya Araiya Sadiya Mikiya Reniya Soniya Jariya Nikiya Liliya Rakeb Camiya Nasiya Aasiya Jaliya Keniya

Sibling names for Rakiya

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

For a sister

Jaylen Yamilet Dalilah Desire Jaidyn Kalia Abagail Areli

For a brother

Kaeden Gavyn Tyshawn Marley Aditya Aydan Aydin Javion

Explore around Rakiya

Top names of 2008, Rakiya's peak year The 2000s in full Other names that peaked in 2008 Girls' names starting with R Hausa Girl Names