Akiva
Akiva was given to 121 boys in 2025, #1,466 among boys’ names; 2,932 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,870 Americans named Akiva and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Akiva by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Akiva mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Akiva is “a male given name from Hebrew.”
From Hebrew עֲקִיבָא (akíva), from Aramaic עֲקִיבָא (ʿăqīḇā).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Akiva?
#1,466 among boys’ names, 2025
Akiva rose from #2,020 in 2015 to #1,466 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 37.0 to 70.8 per million.
145 babies in 2020, the peak
Akiva peaked in 2020, when 145 boys were given it, #1,263 among boys’ names. The 121 births of 2025 are 83% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 121 | #1,466 | 70.8 |
| 2024 | 120 | #1,494 | 69.7 |
| 2023 | 126 | #1,440 | 73.7 |
| 2022 | 113 | #1,566 | 64.7 |
| 2021 | 109 | #1,583 | 62.3 |
| 2020 | 145 | #1,263 | 84.0 |
| 2019 | 79 | #1,887 | 44.0 |
| 2018 | 83 | #1,822 | 45.7 |
| 2017 | 99 | #1,612 | 53.5 |
| 2016 | 94 | #1,676 | 49.5 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 71 | #2,020 | 37.0 |
| 2014 | 87 | #1,730 | 45.3 |
| 2013 | 94 | #1,625 | 49.7 |
| 2012 | 76 | #1,890 | 40.1 |
| 2011 | 74 | #1,885 | 39.0 |
| 2010 | 78 | #1,850 | 40.7 |
| 2009 | 80 | #1,838 | 40.3 |
| 2008 | 87 | #1,736 | 42.6 |
| 2007 | 59 | #2,235 | 28.4 |
| 2006 | 51 | #2,402 | 24.8 |
| 2005 | 71 | #1,810 | 35.5 |
| 2004 | 51 | #2,236 | 25.7 |
| 2003 | 45 | #2,346 | 22.8 |
| 2002 | 43 | #2,369 | 22.1 |
| 2001 | 57 | #1,908 | 29.3 |
| 2000 | 39 | #2,421 | 19.9 |
| 1999 | 48 | #1,994 | 25.0 |
| 1998 | 37 | #2,346 | 19.4 |
| 1997 | 46 | #1,962 | 24.4 |
| 1996 | 36 | #2,249 | 19.0 |
| 1995 | 31 | #2,439 | 16.3 |
| 1994 | 28 | #2,614 | 14.5 |
| 1993 | 31 | #2,393 | 15.8 |
| 1992 | 24 | #2,828 | 12.0 |
| 1991 | 27 | #2,540 | 13.4 |
| 1990 | 21 | #2,948 | 10.2 |
| 1989 | 21 | #2,901 | 10.5 |
| 1988 | 21 | #2,678 | 11.0 |
| 1987 | 18 | #2,834 | 9.6 |
| 1986 | 15 | #3,130 | 8.1 |
| 1985 | 20 | #2,505 | 10.8 |
| 1984 | 19 | #2,530 | 10.5 |
| 1983 | 16 | #2,787 | 8.9 |
| 1982 | 12 | #3,484 | 6.6 |
| 1981 | 13 | #3,220 | 7.3 |
| 1980 | 22 | #2,284 | 12.3 |
| 1979 | 13 | #3,171 | 7.6 |
| 1978 | 18 | #2,472 | 11.0 |
| 1977 | 13 | #3,039 | 7.9 |
| 1976 | 12 | #3,094 | 7.6 |
| 1975 | 14 | #2,752 | 9.0 |
| 1974 | 9 | #3,558 | 5.7 |
| 1973 | 30 | #1,586 | 19.2 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,345 | 5.6 |
| 1971 | 7 | #3,968 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 6 | #3,944 | 3.4 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,068 | 2.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Akiva a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,932 Americans recorded as Akiva, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 121 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Akiva: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Akiva, and how old are they?
2,870 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,932 Americans ever recorded as Akiva. The median Akiva alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 2,095 people named Akiva (159 women and girls, 1,936 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,190 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 146 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 355 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,360 |
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 Akiva born?
The states with the most babies named Akiva are New York, New Jersey and Maryland, with 89% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey and Maryland are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 48 | #367 | 6.5× |
| New Jersey | 28 | #305 | 5.9× |
| Maryland | 9 | #519 | 2.1× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,136 | 0.1× |
| California | 5 | #2,483 | 0.3× |
Where Akiva is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Akiva is most over-represented in New York: since 1961 it was given 6.5 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 boys’ 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 Akiva 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 3,024 babies since 1880, Akiva is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 121 of their 121 babies (100%), again the most given.
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 Akiva
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 Akiva and names like it
- Compare Akiva and AkibaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAkiva peaked in 2020.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Akiva since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Akiva: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Akiva.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Akiva alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.