Khadija
Feminine
Khadija has been in continuous use since the seventh century, when it belonged to a Meccan merchant who became the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad. It travels the whole Muslim world and has been reshaped by every language it entered — Hatice in Turkish, Hatidža in Bosnian, Khady in Senegal. In English it lands as three clear syllables with the weight in the middle, kuh-DEE-juh, and it has been gaining ground in American records rather than fading.
How old is the name Khadija?
Khadija first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Khadija alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 5,200 people named Khadija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Khadija most popular?
Khadija peaked in 2025, reaching #980 nationally. Today it ranks #980, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From خديجة (Khadīja, Arabic) to Khadija
The story of Khadija
The name is Arabic, and its history turns on one woman: Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a merchant of Mecca in the late sixth and early seventh centuries, who employed Muhammad to run her caravans, married him, and became the first person to accept his message. From that point the name spread wherever Islam did, and each language remade its sounds — Turkish flattened it to Hatice, Bosnian to Hatidža, Wolof and Fula speakers in West Africa to Khady and Khadidiatou, South Asian usage to Khadeeja. It reached the United States along several roads at once: immigration from North and West Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and adoption within American Muslim communities. Its strongest showing sits in New York, California and Texas.
Meaningscholars disagree
From an Arabic root associated with early or premature birth
The most widely cited reading traces Khadija to the Arabic root kh-d-j, used of a birth that came early. Other Arabic name scholars treat the origin as not firmly settled and note that the name was already in use before its most famous bearer, with no recorded explanation attached. Either way, the name has for centuries been read through her rather than through etymology.
How the name formed
- خديجةKhadīja, Arabic
- Khadija
- Khadijah
- HaticeTurkish
- KhadyWolof
Related forms: Hatice · Hatidža · Khadidiatou · Khadeeja · Khadijeh · Khatijah
Pronouncing Khadija
kuh-DEE-juh
Stress falls on the middle syllable. In Arabic the opening consonant is a throaty kh, closer to khah-DEE-jah; most English speakers say a plain k instead, and both are heard in American families.
Nicknames for Khadija
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 2025258 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #980reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +11.7%258 in 2025, from 231
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.
Khadija in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hatice in Turkish — same name
- Hatidža in Bosnian — same name
- Khadidiatou in Wolof / Senegalese French — related form
- Khadeeja in Urdu — transliteration
- Khadijeh in Persian — same name
- Khatijah in Malay / Indonesian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Khadijas among us
people named Khadija are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,230 born in 2025 was named Khadija
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Khadija
- #980
- Khadija on the 2025 chart
- #570
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Khadija went to 258 girls in 2025, but Khadijah, Kadija and Kadijah 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 — 410 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,791 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,230 for Khadija 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 Illa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Khadija's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Illa climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Illa's path sketches the road Khadija is walking now.
Khadija is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Khadija is headed
Khadija 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.
Khadija beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Khadija in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Documented in continuous use for roughly fourteen centuries, with an unusually clear point of origin.
- Recognized on sight across Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian, West African, South Asian and Southeast Asian communities.
- Several established short forms already in real use — Khadi, Khady, Dija — so the everyday name is settled.
- Three syllables with a strong middle beat, which keeps it clear when said across a room.
- The spelling competes with Khadijah, Khadeeja, Kadija and Khadidja. All are legitimate, but whichever you pick will need spelling out fairly often in American settings.
- The opening kh rarely survives in English mouths. Expect a soft k from teachers and classmates, and decide in advance whether that matters to you.
- The name is a clear marker of Muslim heritage. For many families that is exactly the point; it is worth naming as a fact rather than discovering it later.
- It is rare enough in the US that a child is unlikely to share it with anyone at school — no confusion, but also no one who already knows how to say it.
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What they receive
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Khadija
Feminine · #980 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Khadijas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,200 people named Khadija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Khadija?
- Khadija is the most-used spelling in US records — 258 of the 424 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Khadijah, Kadija and Kadijah.
- How popular is the name Khadija in 2025?
- Khadija ranks #980 among US girl names in 2025, with 258 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Khadija?
- About 1 in every 6,230 US girls born in 2025 was named Khadija — 258 in all.
- Will my child share the name Khadija with classmates?
- Khadija will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Khadija
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cordelia#980 · Ashlynn#980 · Roselyn#979 · Kori#978 · Akira#983 · Arely#983 · Kamiyah#983 · Skyla#983
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Khadija? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Khadija and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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