Tariq
Tariq was given to 107 boys in 2025, #1,599 among boys’ names; 6,885 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,700 Americans named Tariq and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 14 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tariq by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tariq mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tariq is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the senses “messenger, nocturnal visitor, or morning star” (طَارِق) and “to knock, to rap” (طَرَقَ).
Borrowed from Arabic طَارِق (ṭāriq, “messenger, nocturnal visitor, or morning star”), from طَرَقَ (ṭaraqa, “to knock, to rap”).
/tæɹɪk/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tariq?
#1,599 among boys’ names, 2025
Tariq rose from #1,676 in 2015 to #1,599 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 49.0 to 62.6 per million.
521 babies in 1998, the peak
Tariq peaked in 1998, when 521 babies were given it (514 boys, #444 among boys’ names). The 107 births of 2025 are 21% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 107 | #1,599 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 133 | #1,409 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 146 | #1,313 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 138 | #1,361 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 135 | #1,371 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 135 | #1,333 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 119 | #1,467 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 148 | #1,252 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 141 | #1,292 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 125 | #1,411 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 94 | #1,676 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 92 | #1,678 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 109 | #1,498 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 115 | #1,446 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 107 | #1,508 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 111 | #1,479 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 115 | #1,455 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 117 | #1,432 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 145 | #1,221 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 174 | #1,047 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 172 | #1,001 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 201 | #873 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 225 | #780 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 236 | #740 | 0.12 |
| 2001 | 261 | #690 | 0.13 |
| 2000 | 281 | #647 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 335 | #582 | 0.17 |
| 1998 | 514 | #444 | 0.27 |
| 1997 | 213 | #730 | 0.11 |
| 1996 | 180 | #799 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 137 | #949 | 0.07 |
| 1994 | 138 | #938 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 140 | #911 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 132 | #926 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 130 | #929 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 96 | #1,091 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 87 | #1,139 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 54 | #1,442 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 63 | #1,229 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 53 | #1,356 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 65 | #1,166 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 56 | #1,237 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 59 | #1,188 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 61 | #1,189 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 78 | #1,036 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 51 | #1,323 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 71 | #1,054 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 59 | #1,167 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 53 | #1,220 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 41 | #1,409 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 21 | #2,197 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 21 | #2,120 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 15 | #2,593 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 21 | #2,016 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 20 | #2,113 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 15 | #2,498 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,905 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,475 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,563 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Tariq a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tariq has been given almost only to boys: 7 girls in 59 years of records.
Girls and boys named Tariq: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tariq, and how old are they?
6,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 6,885 Americans ever recorded as Tariq. The median Tariq alive today is 25 years old; half are between 14 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 7,707 people named Tariq (25 women and girls, 7,682 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,000 born in the U.S. The Census count is 28% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 363 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,460 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,270 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,610 |
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 Tariq born?
The states with the most babies named Tariq are Florida, Illinois and New York, with 62% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 12 | #1,118 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 10 | #864 | 0.9× |
| New York | 9 | #1,282 | 1.9× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,129 | 0.9× |
| California | 6 | #2,439 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,097 | 0.8× |
Where Tariq is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tariq is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1963 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 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 Tariq 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 7,533 babies since 1880, Tariq is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 107 of their 113 babies (95%), 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 Tariq
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 Tariq and names like it
- Compare Tariq and TareqBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sTariq peaked in 1998.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tariq since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Tariq: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Tariq.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Tariq alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.