Akiva
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "to protect" or "to safeguard".
Name Census estimates that about 2,759 living Americans carry the first name Akiva. It is a predominantly male name (95.1% of registrations). The average person named Akiva today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Akiva births was 2020 (145 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Akiva. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Akiva with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Akiva is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 138 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 124,231 Americans
Peak year
2020
145 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,518
Tracked since 1961
Census
Akiva in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,092 people with the first name Akiva, which placed it at #7,327 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,327
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,092 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Akiva
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Akiva is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Akiva described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Akiva at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.1% · 1,780
- Black or African American8.5% · 177
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 55
- Two or more races2.3% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Akiva
Akiva leans heavily male at 95.1% of total registrations, but 138 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Akiva as a male name
- Ranked #1,518 in 2024
- 116 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (145 births)
Akiva as a female name
- Ranked #15,265 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1998 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Akiva leans strongly male. 1,936 people counted with this name were male (92.4%), compared with 159 female bearers (7.6%).
Popularity
Akiva: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Akiva from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 870 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Akiva remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Akiva by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Akiva during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Akivas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Akiva, while Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 235 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Akiva
The name Akiva has its origins in Hebrew, stemming from the biblical name Ya'akov. It is derived from the Hebrew word "akov," meaning "heel," and is related to the Hebrew verb "akav," meaning "to follow" or "to compensate." Akiva is a variant spelling of the name Akiva, which is a Hebrew name popularized in ancient times.
The name Akiva gained prominence in Jewish history due to the renowned Rabbi Akiva, a leading scholar and sage who lived in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE. Rabbi Akiva played a crucial role in the development of Rabbinic Judaism and is revered for his contributions to the Mishnah, the first major written collection of Jewish oral traditions.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Akiva can be found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, where Rabbi Akiva is extensively mentioned and his teachings are documented. His life and teachings continue to be studied and celebrated within the Jewish tradition.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Akiva. One of the most famous is Akiva Eger (1761-1837), a renowned Talmudic scholar and influential leader of Hungarian Jewry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Another notable bearer of the name was Akiva Arye Weiss (1858-1957), a prominent Hasidic rabbi and author from Poland.
In the modern era, Akiva has been carried on by individuals such as Akiva Shechter (1901-1978), an Israeli politician and one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and Akiva Tor (1923-2022), an Israeli jurist and former Supreme Court justice.
Additionally, the name Akiva has been associated with various literary and artistic figures, including Akiva Nir (1956-2013), an Israeli playwright and screenwriter, and Akiva Goldsman (born 1962), an American film producer, screenwriter, and novelist best known for his work on films like "A Beautiful Mind" and "I Am Legend."
While the name Akiva has its roots in ancient Hebrew and Jewish tradition, it has transcended its cultural origins and has been embraced by individuals across various backgrounds and nationalities, carrying on the legacy and meaning of this historic name.
People
Akiva + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Akiva as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Akiva: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Akiva?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,759 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Akiva going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 124,231 US residents.
Is Akiva a common name?
We classify Akiva as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,806 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Akiva most popular?
The single biggest year for Akiva was 2020, when 145 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Akiva is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Akiva in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,092 people with the name Akiva, or 0.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,327 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Akiva in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Akiva?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Akiva leans strongly male. 1,936 people counted with this name were male (92.4%), compared with 159 female bearers (7.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Akiva?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Akiva is White at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Akiva most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Akiva in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.1% (1,780 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Akiva in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Akiva a male name?
Yes, 95.1% of people registered as Akiva in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Akiva still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Akiva in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Akiva can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Akiva as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.