Name Awesome

Rifka

#11,718 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Rivka

Rifka has been given to 736 babies in the U.S. since 1952. In 2025 it ranked #11,718 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2001, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Rifka, 2025

1 in 414,000

Rifka over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rifka: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Rivka

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Rifka means

Rifka is a variant of Rivka.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Rifka is used in Yiddish.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Rifka → Rivka → רִבְקָה. The family’s meaning is “to join, couple, tie”, recorded in Hebrew with the source elements r-b-q.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rivka.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 736 girls were recorded with the name Rifka between 1952 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 20 in 2001; its best national rank was #4,653 in 1974.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,418 in 2020 to #11,718 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #8,844 in 2015 to #11,718 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 Rifka?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,718
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rifka 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 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 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rifka. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rifkas were born

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

Median birth year
1997
About 28 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
18.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
43.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
736
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 18.5% of all recorded uses (136).

Is Rifka 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
−3,387
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,300
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,874
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.62×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
40.0%
Peak was 2001 (20)
Years since peak
24
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,653
1974

Spellings of Rifka

Rifka is not the most common spelling — Rita is, with 55.7% against Rifka's 0.14%.

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 Rifka is used

Across 1910–2025, Rifka was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 22,253 across all states with data.

44 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 25,000

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

Rifka around the world

Where Rifka 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
    1998–2020
    #5,493
    in 2020
  • France
    1982–2024
    #5,063
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1987–1987
    #684
    in 1987

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.

Rifka by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,718
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,300
Best rank ever
#4,653
1974
Peak year
2001
20 that year
First recorded
1952
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
736
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Rifka

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

RifkyRifanRifa

Sibling names for Rifka

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 Rifka

Top names of 2001, Rifka's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1974Girls' names starting with RYiddish Girl NamesYiddish Names