Habiba
Feminine · “beloved”
Habiba is beloved in Arabic, in the plainest possible way: it is the ordinary word a person uses for someone they love, given as a name. The root runs through a great deal of Arabic poetry and everyday speech alike, and the name is used from Morocco to Indonesia.
How old is the name Habiba?
Habiba first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Habiba is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Habiba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Habiba most popular?
Habiba peaked in 2014, reaching #3425 nationally. Today it ranks #4878, 1,453 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Habiba
Arabic naming draws directly on affection as well as on virtue, and the h-b-b root produced a family of names: Habib, Habiba, Habibullah, Muhib. Habiba was carried by companions of the Prophet, which fixed it in early Islamic use, and it has been given continuously since. It is especially common in Egypt, where it has been among the most-given girls' names in recent decades, and it came to American records with Egyptian, Levantine, North African and South Asian families.
Meaning
beloved
Arabic habiba, the feminine of habib, beloved, from the root h-b-b, to love. The masculine and feminine are both used as names and both are ordinary words in daily speech.
Pronouncing Habiba
hah-BEE-bah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, all vowels open. The h at the front is fuller in Arabic than in English, but the English h is close enough.
Nicknames for Habiba
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 201446 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3425reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%27 in 2025, from 21
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.
Habiba in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- حبيبة in Arabic — transliteration
- Habibe in Turkish — same name
- Habiba in Urdu — same name
- Habiba in Swahili — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, New Jersey.
Habibas among us
people named Habiba are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 59,528 born in 2025 was named Habiba
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 Shamyra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Habiba's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shamyra climbed just as high around 1987, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shamyra's path sketches the road Habiba is walking now.
Habiba sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Habiba is headed
Habiba should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Habiba beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Habiba in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one warm word and it needs no explaining to anyone who speaks Arabic.
- Three open syllables make it easy for English speakers to say correctly.
- It is used across the whole Muslim world, so it belongs to many communities at once.
- Habiba and Habibah are both used in transliteration, so records may differ.
- The word is also an ordinary term of endearment, so Arabic speakers hear it in daily sentences.
- English speakers may stress the first syllable, which changes the rhythm noticeably.
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What they receive
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Habiba
Feminine · #4878 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Habibas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Habiba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Habiba in 2025?
- Habiba ranks #4878 among US girl names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Habiba?
- About 1 in every 59,528 US girls born in 2025 was named Habiba — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Habiba with classmates?
- Habiba will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Habiba
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maribelle#4878 · Evangelia#4878 · Pari#4878 · Zoraya#4878 · Saba#4878 · Chyna#4878 · Odyssey#4878 · Zana#4878
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Habiba? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Habiba and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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