Rahkeem
Of Arabic origin, meaning "forgiver, merciful one".
Name Census estimates that about 315 living Americans carry the first name Rahkeem. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rahkeem today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rahkeem births was 1992 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rahkeem. 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.
People living today
315
~ 1 in 1,088,109 Americans
Peak year
1992
19 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,133
Tracked since 1976
Census
Rahkeem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 214 people with the first name Rahkeem, which placed it at #36,840 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
#36,840
National first-name rank
People counted
214
214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rahkeem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rahkeem is Black at 91.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.3%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.1% · 195
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 7
- Two or more races3.3% · 7
- White1.9% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 1
Popularity
Rahkeem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rahkeem from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 133 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Rahkeem remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rahkeem
The name Rahkeem has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, originating in the Middle East during the medieval period. It is derived from the Arabic word "raheem," which means "merciful" or "compassionate." The name carries a strong religious connotation in Islamic tradition, being one of the names attributed to Allah, the Supreme Being, in the Quran.
Historically, the name Rahkeem has been associated with Islamic scholars, poets, and religious figures. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 12th century, when a renowned Islamic philosopher and theologian, Rahkeem al-Ghazali, lived and wrote his influential works on Islamic mysticism and jurisprudence.
During the Ottoman Empire's reign, which spanned from the 13th to the 20th century, the name Rahkeem gained popularity among the ruling elite and intellectual circles. A notable figure bearing this name was Rahkeem Pasha, a prominent Ottoman statesman and Grand Vizier who served under Sultan Mehmed IV in the late 17th century.
In the literary realm, the name Rahkeem has been immortalized by several poets and writers throughout the centuries. One such example is Rahkeem Iqbal, a celebrated Pakistani philosopher, and poet who lived from 1877 to 1938. His works, including the famous "Shikwa" and "Khizr-e-Rah," have had a profound impact on the literary and intellectual landscape of South Asia.
Another prominent figure with the name Rahkeem was Rahkeem Haqqani, an Afghan Islamic scholar and the founder of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban-aligned militant group in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was born in 1939 and gained notoriety for his role in the Afghan resistance against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.
In more recent times, the name Rahkeem has been carried by several notable athletes and public figures. One example is Rahkeem Morris, an American football coach who served as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League from 2019 to 2020.
People
Rahkeem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rahkeem as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rahkeem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rahkeem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 315 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rahkeem 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 1,088,109 US residents.
Is Rahkeem a common name?
We classify Rahkeem as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 321 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rahkeem most popular?
The single biggest year for Rahkeem was 1992, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rahkeem is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rahkeem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 214 people with the name Rahkeem, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,840 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 Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rahkeem appears almost entirely male. Of the 212 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Rahkeem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rahkeem is Black at 91.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.3%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Rahkeem most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rahkeem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.1% (195 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 Rahkeem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rahkeem a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem 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 Rahkeem as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Rahkeem, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.