Taariq
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "morning star" or "path."
Name Census estimates that about 280 living Americans carry the first name Taariq. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Taariq today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Taariq births was 1999 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Taariq. 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 Taariq with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
280
~ 1 in 1,224,123 Americans
Peak year
1999
18 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,941
Tracked since 1988
Census
Taariq in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 254 people with the first name Taariq, which placed it at #32,878 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
#32,878
National first-name rank
People counted
254
254 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Taariq
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taariq is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.3%). 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 Taariq 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 Taariq at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.6% · 197
- Two or more races8.3% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.3% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 11
- White3.1% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
Popularity
Taariq: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Taariq from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 134 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
Taariq 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 Taariq during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Taariqs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Taariq
The given name Taariq has its origins in the Arabic language. It is derived from the Arabic word "tariq" which means "path" or "way". The name is believed to have emerged during the early centuries of Islam, around the 7th century AD, in the Arabian Peninsula.
The name Taariq holds a significant historical reference. In 711 AD, a Berber Muslim commander named Tariq ibn Ziyad led the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa to Spain. His name, Tariq, became associated with this pivotal event in history, and the Rock of Gibraltar was named after him, known as "Jabal Tariq" or "Mount of Tariq".
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Taariq can be found in the biography of Tariq ibn Ziyad, the aforementioned commander who played a crucial role in the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Other notable historical figures with the name Taariq include:
1. Tariq ibn Shihab (c. 670-720 AD), an Arab military leader and governor of Egypt under the Umayyad Caliphate.
2. Tariq ibn Ziyad (c. 670-720 AD), the Berber Muslim commander who led the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD.
3. Tariq al-Bakri (c. 1010-1094 AD), an Arab geographer and scholar from Andalusia, known for his work "Al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik" (Roads and Kingdoms).
4. Tariq ibn Abi Bakr (c. 1177-1246 AD), a Moroccan Sufi scholar and poet, known for his work "Qutb al-Madhhab al-Maliki" (The Pole of the Maliki School).
5. Tariq ibn Ziyad al-Saqlabi (c. 1201-1278 AD), an Arab historian and author of the book "Kitab al-Muqni fi 'Ilm al-Shurut" (The Sufficient Book on the Science of Conditions).
The name Taariq has been present throughout various regions of the Islamic world, including the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe, particularly in areas that were once under Islamic rule or influence, such as Spain and Portugal.
People
Taariq + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Taariq as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Taariq: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Taariq?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 280 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Taariq 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 1,224,123 US residents.
Is Taariq a common name?
We classify Taariq as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 285 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Taariq most popular?
The single biggest year for Taariq was 1999, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Taariq is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Taariq in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 254 people with the name Taariq, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,878 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 Taariq 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 Taariq?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Taariq appears almost entirely male. Of the 250 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 Taariq?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Taariq is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.3%). 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 Taariq most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Taariq in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (197 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 Taariq in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Taariq a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Taariq 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 Taariq still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Taariq 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 Taariq 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 Taariq 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.