Kadijah
Feminine · “born early”
Six women from one household supplied a large part of the world's stock of names. Khadija, Fatima, Aisha, Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum — the wives and daughters of the Prophet — and fourteen centuries later they are among the most given women's names on earth, from Senegal to Indonesia.
How old is the name Kadijah?
Kadijah first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Kadijah alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,400 people named Kadijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kadijah most popular?
Kadijah peaked in 1994, reaching #512 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,420 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Khadija to Kadijah
The story of Kadijah
The concentration is remarkable when you look at it directly. A handful of women in seventh-century Mecca account for a large share of women's naming across a quarter of the world's population, and they have done for longer than most European names have existed. The pattern holds through enormous linguistic variety: the same six names appear as Hatice and Ayse in Turkish, Fatou and Aissatou in Wolof, Siti Fatimah in Malay, Khadidja in French-speaking Africa. The spelling in American records depends on which of those roads a family came by, and the j itself moves: the Arabic letter is a hard j in most of the Arab world, a soft zh in the Levant, and a plain g in Egypt, where the name is said Khadiga.
Meaningscholars disagree
born early
The usual reading connects it with an Arabic root for premature birth, which is an odd meaning for so revered a name and is one reason it is disputed. Other proposals exist and none is settled. The name's weight comes entirely from its first bearer rather than from its etymology.
How the name formed
- Khadija
- Kadijah
Related forms: Khadija · Hatice · Khadijah · Khadidja
Pronouncing Kadijah
kah-DEE-jah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. In Arabic the first consonant is made at the back of the throat, and in Egypt the j is a hard g, khah-DEE-gah. All are the same name.
Nicknames for Kadijah
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 1994486 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #512reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%7 in 2025, from 10
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.
Kadijah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Khadija in Arabic — same name
- Hatice in Turkish — same name
- Khadijah in Indonesian — same name
- Khadidja in French — spelling variant
Kadijahs among us
people named Kadijah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Kadijah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kadijah
- #11932
- Kadijah on the 2025 chart
- #570
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kadijah went to 7 girls in 2025, but Khadija, Khadijah and Kadija are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 424, which makes it the 570th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,362 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,791 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Kadijah 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 Barbra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kadijah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Barbra climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Barbra's path sketches the road Kadijah is walking now.
Kadijah 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
Kadijah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kadijah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the most widely given women's names in the world, recognized on four continents.
- Three short forms in genuine use rather than invented.
- Three open syllables with a clear central stress.
- Khadija and Khadijah are the standard international spellings and this will be read as a variant.
- The j is said three different ways across the Arabic-speaking world, all correct.
- The etymology usually printed for it is disputed and unflattering.
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Kadijah
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kadijahs 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 Kadijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kadijah?
- Kadijah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Khadija is the more common one — 258 births in 2025 against 7 for Kadijah.
- How popular is the name Kadijah in 2025?
- Kadijah ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kadijah?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Kadijah — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kadijah with classmates?
- Kadijah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kadijah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kadijah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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