Arwa
Feminine · “mountain goat”
Arwa is a mountain goat in Arabic — the ibex of the highlands — and it belonged to a queen who ruled Yemen for more than fifty years.
How old is the name Arwa?
Arwa first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Arwa is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,400 people named Arwa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arwa most popular?
Arwa peaked in 2025, reaching #1942 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From arwa to Arwa
The story of Arwa
Arwa al-Sulayhi ruled Yemen from 1067 until her death in 1138 — over seventy years in power, the last fifty in her own name, and the only woman to be given the highest religious rank in her branch of Islam. The name is used across the Arabic-speaking world and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
mountain goat, female ibex
From the Arabic arwa, the female mountain goat or ibex, an animal of the Arabian highlands. Arabic naming used animal names freely and the ibex was admired for surefootedness. The word is ordinary Arabic and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- arwa
- Arwa
Related forms: أروى · Arwaa
Pronouncing Arwa
AR-wah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic ends it with an alif maqsura that English simplifies.
Nicknames for Arwa
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 202599 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1942reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +13.8%99 in 2025, from 87
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Arwa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- أروى in Arabic — transliteration
- Arwaa in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Texas, Illinois.
Arwas among us
people named Arwa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,235 born in 2025 was named Arwa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Anaiyah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arwa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anaiyah climbed just as high around 2010, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anaiyah's path sketches the road Arwa is walking now.
Arwa is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Arwa is headed
Arwa looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 20% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Arwa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arwa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The ibex meaning is concrete and the animal is real and specific.
- A queen who ruled for seventy years is a genuinely remarkable bearer.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk in English.
- It reads as specifically Arabic.
- The final vowel is simplified in English transliteration.
- It is very short and can be swallowed by a long surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Arwa
Feminine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arwas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Arwa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arwa in 2025?
- Arwa ranks #1942 among US girl names in 2025, with 99 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arwa?
- About 1 in every 16,235 US girls born in 2025 was named Arwa — 99 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arwa with classmates?
- Arwa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arwa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Iyanna#1942 · Nahomi#1942 · Aziyah#1942 · Avia#1942 · Nazly#1942 · Kamiya#1942 · Priya#1942 · Kyndall#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arwa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arwa and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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