Akeelah
Akeelah was given to 15 girls in 2025, #7,144 among girls’ names; 1,533 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,520 Americans named Akeelah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 14 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Akeelah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Akeelah?
#7,144 among girls’ names, 2025
Akeelah fell from #3,991 in 2015 to #7,144 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 20.7 to 9.3 per million.
403 babies in 2006, the peak
Akeelah peaked in 2006, when 403 girls were given it, #708 among girls’ names. The 15 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 15 | #7,144 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 21 | #5,801 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 20 | #5,969 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 24 | #5,314 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 27 | #4,835 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,488 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 30 | #4,548 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 39 | #3,789 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 31 | #4,479 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 34 | #4,253 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (25)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 37 | #3,991 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 34 | #4,269 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 40 | #3,781 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 39 | #3,916 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 58 | #2,944 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 94 | #2,094 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 124 | #1,758 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 160 | #1,469 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 249 | #1,054 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 403 | #708 | 0.21 |
| 2002 | 6 | #13,636 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 8 | #9,825 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 6 | #11,837 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 5 | #13,435 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 7 | #9,690 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Akeelah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Akeelah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 25 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Akeelah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Akeelah, and how old are they?
1,520 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,533 Americans ever recorded as Akeelah. The median Akeelah alive today is 18 years old; half are between 14 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 1,159 people named Akeelah (1,156 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,399 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 18 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,130 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 372 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Akeelah born?
The states with the most babies named Akeelah are Florida, Georgia and Illinois, with 34% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 121 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Georgia | 100 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Illinois | 75 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Mississippi | 71 | not ranked | 4.5× |
| Texas | 69 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| New York | 65 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Louisiana | 56 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| Alabama | 48 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| North Carolina | 35 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| California | 30 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Akeelah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Akeelah is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1989 it was given 1.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Akeelah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 6,304 babies since 1880, Akeelah is the second most given (24% of them). In 2025 it was given to 15 of their 32 babies (47%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Akeelah
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Akeelah and names like it
- Compare Akeelah and AkilahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAkeelah peaked in 2006.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Akeelah since 1910.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Akeelah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Akeelah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.