Hakeem
Masculine · Arabic roots · “wise”
Hakeem comes from the Arabic ḥakīm, "wise" — a word that appears throughout the Qur'an as an attribute of God, al-Ḥakīm, the All-Wise. In English the -eem spelling does a kind favor: it puts the long vowel right there on the page, so most readers get it on the first try. Two beats, stress on the second, ending in a sound that carries down a hallway.
How old is the name Hakeem?
Hakeem first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Hakeem alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 6,200 people named Hakeem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hakeem most popular?
Hakeem peaked in 1989, reaching #586 nationally. Today it ranks #1499, 913 places below that high. See the whole 1989 chart.
Hakeem appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Ḥakīm (Arabic) to Hakeem
The story of Hakeem
The name is Arabic, built on the root ḥ-k-m, and it is old in the language of the Qur'an, where al-Ḥakīm stands among the names of God. From Arabic it traveled with Islam along every route Islam took: into Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian, and into Swahili on the East African coast. In South Asia, hakīm also became a working title — the practitioner of Unani medicine, the learned physician — so the word carries both wisdom and healing there. In the United States the name arrived largely through African American Muslim families in the later twentieth century, and it has been steadily present ever since, familiar without ever crowding a classroom.
Meaning
wise, judicious
From the Arabic root ḥ-k-m, which covers wisdom, judgment and rule. Worth knowing that a near neighbor, ḥākim, means "ruler" or "judge" — the same three root letters, a different word, and often confused with this one.
How the name formed
- ḤakīmArabic
- Hakim
- Hakeem
Related forms: حكيم (Ḥakīm) · Hakim · Hakeem / Hakim · Hakim · Hakim · Hakimu
Pronouncing Hakeem
hah-KEEM
Stress falls on the second syllable. In Arabic the initial consonant is a deeper, throat-based ḥ, so relatives who speak Arabic may say it with a weight English does not have; both are the same name.
Nicknames for Hakeem
High
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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 1989279 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #586reached in 1989
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%117 in 2025, from 156
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.
Hakeem in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- حكيم (Ḥakīm) in Arabic — transliteration
- Hakim in Turkish — same name
- Hakeem / Hakim in Urdu — spelling variant
- Hakim in Indonesian — same name
- Hakim in Persian — same name
- Hakimu in Swahili — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Hakeems among us
people named Hakeem are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,599 born in 2025 was named Hakeem
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 Kenton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hakeem's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenton climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenton's path sketches the road Hakeem is walking now.
Hakeem 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 Hakeem is headed
Hakeem 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.
Hakeem beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hakeem in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling shows the sound: -eem reads as "eem" to almost any English speaker, so it is usually said correctly at first sight.
- A clearly established meaning, "wise", with an unbroken record in Arabic going back to the Qur'an.
- Works across Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malay, Indonesian and Swahili-speaking communities without translation.
- Two syllables with obvious stress, and a ready short form in Keem for informal use.
- Hakim and Hakeem are both standard transliterations of the same Arabic name, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often. Choosing one and using it consistently on documents saves the most trouble.
- Because ḥakīm "wise" sits so close to ḥākim "ruler, judge", people who know some Arabic occasionally read the second meaning into it. Neither reading is unflattering, but it is worth being ready for the question.
- It is a name a child will likely carry alone in their year group. That means no surname initial, and also no one else to share the correction with.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Hakeem
Masculine · Arabic roots · #1499 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hakeems are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,200 people named Hakeem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hakeem in 2025?
- Hakeem ranks #1499 among US boy names in 2025, with 117 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hakeem?
- About 1 in every 14,599 US boys born in 2025 was named Hakeem — 117 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hakeem with classmates?
- Hakeem will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hakeem
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hakeem? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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