Rakim
Rakim was given to 13 boys in 2025, #6,715 among boys’ names; 1,322 Americans have been recorded with it since 1981 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,290 Americans named Rakim and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 15 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rakim by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rakim?
#6,715 among boys’ names, 2025
Rakim fell from #6,234 in 2015 to #6,715 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 7.3 to 7.6 per million.
94 babies in 1992, the peak
Rakim peaked in 1992, when 94 boys were given it, #1,137 among boys’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #6,715 | 7.6 |
| 2024 | 23 | #4,525 | 13.3 |
| 2023 | 20 | #5,016 | 11.7 |
| 2022 | 28 | #3,964 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 22 | #4,593 | 12.6 |
| 2020 | 23 | #4,385 | 13.3 |
| 2019 | 15 | #6,029 | 8.4 |
| 2018 | 22 | #4,572 | 12.1 |
| 2017 | 21 | #4,704 | 11.3 |
| 2016 | 32 | #3,502 | 16.9 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 14 | #6,234 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 28 | #3,754 | 14.6 |
| 2013 | 31 | #3,477 | 16.4 |
| 2012 | 16 | #5,662 | 8.4 |
| 2011 | 24 | #4,185 | 12.6 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,193 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 21 | #4,708 | 10.6 |
| 2008 | 11 | #7,585 | 5.4 |
| 2007 | 31 | #3,489 | 14.9 |
| 2006 | 21 | #4,466 | 10.2 |
| 2005 | 22 | #4,151 | 11.0 |
| 2004 | 20 | #4,374 | 10.1 |
| 2003 | 23 | #3,816 | 11.6 |
| 2002 | 28 | #3,239 | 14.4 |
| 2001 | 29 | #3,118 | 14.9 |
| 2000 | 31 | #2,902 | 15.8 |
| 1999 | 31 | #2,774 | 16.1 |
| 1998 | 60 | #1,711 | 31.4 |
| 1997 | 35 | #2,383 | 18.6 |
| 1996 | 33 | #2,412 | 17.4 |
| 1995 | 44 | #1,940 | 23.1 |
| 1994 | 52 | #1,723 | 26.9 |
| 1993 | 58 | #1,565 | 29.6 |
| 1992 | 94 | #1,137 | 47.1 |
| 1991 | 76 | #1,285 | 37.6 |
| 1990 | 80 | #1,228 | 38.9 |
| 1989 | 72 | #1,282 | 36.0 |
| 1988 | 76 | #1,158 | 39.7 |
| 1987 | 14 | #3,464 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,556 | 2.7 |
| 1981 | 5 | #7,029 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rakim a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rakim has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 41 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Rakim: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rakim, and how old are they?
1,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,322 Americans ever recorded as Rakim. The median Rakim alive today is 28 years old; half are between 15 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 897 people named Rakim (20 women and girls, 877 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,174 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24% 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 | 583 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 413 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 290 |
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 Rakim born?
The states with the most babies named Rakim are New York, North Carolina and New Jersey, with 54% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 120 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 57 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| New Jersey | 36 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 36 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 26 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 26 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| South Carolina | 19 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 17 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 12 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| California | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Rakim is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rakim is most over-represented in New York: since 1981 it was given 1.4 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 Rakim 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,596 babies since 1880, Rakim is the second most given (37% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 43 babies (30%), again the second 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 Rakim
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 Rakim and names like it
- Compare Rakim and RakeemBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sRakim peaked in 1992.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rakim since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Rakim.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Rakim alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with RMost given first.