Rakayla
A feminine name possibly derived from the Native American Sioux language.
Name Census estimates that about 237 living Americans carry the first name Rakayla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rakayla today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rakayla births was 2005 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rakayla. 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
237
~ 1 in 1,446,221 Americans
Peak year
2005
21 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2015 SSA rank
#11,631
Tracked since 1997
Census
Rakayla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 212 people with the first name Rakayla, which placed it at #37,053 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
#37,053
National first-name rank
People counted
212
212 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rakayla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rakayla is Black at 81.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Rakayla 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 Rakayla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American81.6% · 173
- White9.0% · 19
- Two or more races5.7% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Rakayla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rakayla from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 129 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Rakayla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rakayla 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 Rakayla 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 Rakayla
The name Rakayla is a relatively modern invention, likely derived from a combination of existing names and words. It is not associated with any particular language, culture, or historical period.
Despite its lack of deep historical roots, the name Rakayla has gained some popularity in recent years, especially in certain regions. One possible origin could be a blend of the names Rachel and Kayla, which are both of Hebrew origin.
Another theory suggests that Rakayla may be a combination of the Sanskrit word "raka," meaning "full moon," and the name Kayla, which is a variation of the Hebrew name Kaiah, meaning "to gather" or "to collect." This would give the name Rakayla a poetic meaning of "gathering of the full moon."
In the absence of ancient texts or historical records mentioning the name Rakayla, it is difficult to pinpoint any specific historical references or famous individuals bearing this name from earlier periods.
However, some notable modern individuals with the first name Rakayla include:
1. Rakayla Hodges, an American basketball player who played for the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
2. Rakayla Berry, an American track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon.
3. Rakayla Carr, an American musician and singer-songwriter known for her work in the Christian music genre.
4. Rakayla Sheffield, an American entrepreneur and founder of a successful jewelry company.
5. Rakayla Thompson, an American academic and professor of sociology at a prominent university.
While the name Rakayla may lack a deep historical lineage, its increasing popularity in recent times suggests that it resonates with modern parents seeking unique and meaningful names for their children.
People
Rakayla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rakayla 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
Rakayla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rakayla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rakayla 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 1,446,221 US residents.
Is Rakayla a common name?
We classify Rakayla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rakayla most popular?
The single biggest year for Rakayla was 2005, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rakayla is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rakayla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 212 people with the name Rakayla, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,053 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 Rakayla 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 Rakayla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rakayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 215 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Rakayla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rakayla is Black at 81.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Rakayla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rakayla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (173 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 Rakayla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rakayla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rakayla in the SSA data are female. 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 Rakayla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rakayla 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 Rakayla 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 Rakayla as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Rakayla, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.