Halima
Feminine · “gentle”
Halima is gentle and patient in Arabic — and it belonged to the woman who nursed the infant Muhammad in the desert, by the custom of the time.
How old is the name Halima?
Halima first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Halima alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 2,300 people named Halima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Halima most popular?
Halima peaked in 2024, reaching #1681 nationally. Today it ranks #1902, 221 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From halim to Halima
The story of Halima
Halima al-Sa'diyya was the Bedouin woman who nursed Muhammad as an infant, following the Meccan custom of sending children to the desert for their early years. The name is used across the Arabic-speaking world and in Swahili- and Hausa-speaking Africa. Emigration brought it to America, where it is in current use.
Meaning
gentle, patient, forbearing
From the Arabic halimah, the feminine of halim, 'gentle', 'patient' or 'forbearing' — Al-Halim is one of the ninety-nine names of God, the Forbearing. The word is ordinary Arabic and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- halim
- halimah
- Halima
Related forms: حليمة · Halima · Halime
Pronouncing Halima
hah-LEE-mah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Arabic gives the h a fuller breath than English does.
Nicknames for Halima
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 2024121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1681reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −15.7%102 in 2025, from 121
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.
Halima in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- حليمة in Arabic — transliteration
- Halima in Swahili — same name
- Halime in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Halimas among us
people named Halima are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,758 born in 2025 was named Halima
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Halima
- #1902
- Halima on the 2025 chart
- #835
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Halima went to 102 girls in 2025, but Halimah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 125, which makes it the 835th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,067 places above the chart.
- Halima102
- Halimah23
About 1 girl in 12,858 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,758 for Halima itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tamitha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Halima's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tamitha climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tamitha's path sketches the road Halima is walking now.
Halima 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 Halima is headed
Halima should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Halima beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Halima in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The gentle meaning is transparent, undisputed and genuinely warm.
- Al-Halim is among the ninety-nine names of God, which is real weight.
- It is genuine across Arabic, Swahili, Hausa and Turkish naming.
- The Arabic h is fuller than the English one.
- Halimah with the h is the fuller transliteration.
- It reads as specifically Muslim.
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What they receive
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Halima
Feminine · #1902 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Halimas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Halima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Halima?
- Halima is the most-used spelling in US records — 102 of the 125 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Halimah.
- How popular is the name Halima in 2025?
- Halima ranks #1902 among US girl names in 2025, with 102 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Halima?
- About 1 in every 15,758 US girls born in 2025 was named Halima — 102 in all.
- Will my child share the name Halima with classmates?
- Halima will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Halima
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kolbie#1902 · Riverlynn#1902 · Kinzley#1902 · Zya#1902 · Meghan#1902 · Pepper#1902 · Violett#1902 · Izzy#1902
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Halima? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Halima and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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