Kasim
Masculine · “One who divides and distributes”
Qāsim is one who divides and distributes — the man who shares out what there is. It was the name of Muhammad's eldest son, who died in infancy, and it gave the Prophet his kunya: Abu al-Qasim, the father of Qasim.
How old is the name Kasim?
Kasim first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Kasim alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 800 people named Kasim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kasim most popular?
Kasim peaked in 1991, reaching #2753 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 2,855 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From qāsim to Kasim
The story of Kasim
Qasim ibn Muhammad was the Prophet's first son by Khadija and died young, but the kunya Abu al-Qasim stayed with Muhammad for life and is used of him constantly in the traditions. That gave the name a permanent place in Muslim naming. Ali Baba's tale gives it to a greedy brother, which is a separate literary life. It is used across the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, South Asia and West Africa. American records show Kasim from the 1970s, through immigration and through African American Muslim naming, with a peak in 1991.
Meaning
One who divides and distributes
From the Arabic root q-s-m, to divide or apportion, giving the active participle qāsim — one who distributes, with the implication of fair division. The reading is settled. The K spelling is a Turkish and general transliteration; Arabic q is a deep k made far back in the throat that English has no equivalent for.
How the name formed
- qāsim
- Qasim
- Kasim
Related forms: قاسم · Kasım · قاسم · Kasimu
Pronouncing Kasim
KAH-sim
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long first vowel. The Arabic q is made far back in the throat and English replaces it with a plain k.
Nicknames for Kasim
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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 200431 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2753reached in 1991
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%16 in 2025, from 18
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.
Kasim in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- قاسم in Arabic — transliteration
- Kasım in Turkish — spelling variant
- قاسم in Urdu — same name
- Kasimu in Hausa — spelling variant
Kasims among us
people named Kasim are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Kasim
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kasim
- #5608
- Kasim on the 2025 chart
- #844
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kasim went to 16 boys in 2025, but Qasim and Kazim are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 84, which makes it the 844th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,764 places above the chart.
- Qasim60
- Kasim16
- Kazim8
About 1 boy in 20,334 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Kasim 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 Kalonji test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kasim's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kalonji climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kalonji's path sketches the road Kasim is walking now.
Kasim 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
Kasim beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kasim in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and unusually specific — fair distribution.
- It is recognized across the whole Muslim world.
- Five letters and two syllables travel easily.
- Qasim, Kasim and Kassim are three transliterations of one name.
- The Arabic q is lost entirely in English.
- In Turkish Kasım is also the name of the month of November.
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Kasim
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kasims 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 Kasim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kasim?
- Kasim is one of 3 recorded spellings. Qasim is the more common one — 60 births in 2025 against 16 for Kasim.
- How popular is the name Kasim in 2025?
- Kasim ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kasim?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Kasim — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kasim with classmates?
- Kasim will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kasim
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kasim? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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