Rashad
A male name of Arabic origin meaning "rightly guided" or "righteous".
Name Census estimates that about 15,802 living Americans carry the first name Rashad. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Rashad today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rashad births was 1990 (682 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rashad. 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 Rashad with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Rashad is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 85 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,691 Americans
Peak year
1990
682 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,797
Tracked since 1973
Census
Rashad in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,313 people with the first name Rashad, which placed it at #2,163 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
#2,163
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
12,313 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rashad
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rashad is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are White (5.4%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Rashad 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 Rashad at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.9% · 10,456
- White5.4% · 662
- Two or more races4.5% · 560
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 342
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 238
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 55
Gender
Gender distribution for Rashad
Out of the 16,236 babies given the name Rashad since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Rashad as a male name
- Ranked #1,797 in 2024
- 91 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (677 births)
Rashad as a female name
- Ranked #13,018 in 1994
- 6 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1981 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rashad appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,313 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Rashad: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rashad 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 4,711 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rashad 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 Rashad during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rashads live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, California recorded the most babies named Rashad, while Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 389 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rashad
The name Rashad has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, dating back to the medieval period in the Middle East and North Africa. It is derived from the Arabic word "rashid," which means "rightly guided" or "on the right path."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rashad can be found in the historical chronicles of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a significant portion of the Islamic world from the 8th to the 13th century. During this time, the name was often associated with individuals who were considered wise, virtuous, and righteous.
In the realm of Islamic literature, the name Rashad is mentioned in several religious texts and scholarly works. For example, it appears in the writings of the renowned Islamic philosopher and theologian Al-Ghazali, who lived from 1058 to 1111 CE.
The earliest known historical figure bearing the name Rashad was Rashad al-Din Sinan, a prominent leader of the Ismaili Shi'a sect during the 11th and 12th centuries. He is famously known as the "Old Man of the Mountain" and played a significant role in the crusades against the Christian forces in the Levant.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have carried the name Rashad. One such person was Rashad al-Din Fazlullah, a Persian historian and writer who lived from 1247 to 1318 CE. He is renowned for his comprehensive work, the "Jami' al-Tawarikh," which chronicled the history of the Mongol Empire.
Another famous bearer of the name was Rashad al-Din Vatvat, a Persian poet and mystic who lived from 1292 to 1384 CE. His poetic works, which explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human condition, have been celebrated and studied for centuries.
In more recent history, Rashad Khalifa, an Egyptian-American biochemist and religious reformer, gained prominence in the 20th century. He founded the United Submitters International, a religious movement based on his interpretations of the Quran.
Rashad Hussain, an American lawyer and diplomat, also made a notable impact in the 21st century. He served as the United States Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation from 2010 to 2015, working to strengthen ties between the United States and Muslim-majority nations.
People
Rashad + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rashad 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
Rashad: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rashad?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,802 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rashad 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 21,691 US residents.
Is Rashad a common name?
We classify Rashad as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,236 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rashad most popular?
The single biggest year for Rashad was 1990, when 682 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rashad is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rashad in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,313 people with the name Rashad, or 4.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,163 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 Rashad 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 Rashad?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rashad appears almost entirely male. Of the 12,313 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Rashad?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rashad is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are White (5.4%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Rashad most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rashad in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (10,456 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 Rashad in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rashad a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Rashad 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 Rashad still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rashad 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 Rashad 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 the name Rashad?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Rashad, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.