Rasheda
Feminine · “rightly guided”
The Arabic name behind this one has a single spelling in Arabic and about six in English. Arabic writes short vowels only when it wants to, and English has to guess at them; the consonants are fixed and everything between them is a decision — which is why the record carries Rasheda, Rashida, Rasheeda, Rashidah and more.
How old is the name Rasheda?
Rasheda first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Rasheda alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 1,000 people named Rasheda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rasheda most popular?
Rasheda peaked in 1976, reaching #1117 nationally. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From an Arabic root about right guidance to Rasheda
Our story of Rasheda
The mismatch between two writing systems produces a very particular kind of variation. Arabic is built on roots of three consonants, and the vowels between them are grammar rather than spelling — a reader who knows the language supplies them. English does the opposite: the vowels are fixed on the page and the reader has no choice. So a name crossing between them arrives with its consonants intact and its vowels up for negotiation, and every family that writes it down is making a decision the original never required anybody to make.
Meaning
rightly guided
The Arabic root carries a sense of right guidance and good sense, and it is one of the most productive roots in the language. The feminine ending is the standard one. Every English version of the name is an attempt to write in an alphabet with fixed vowels a word that was written in an alphabet where the vowels are optional, and no attempt can be more correct than the others.
How the name formed
- an Arabic root about right guidance
- the feminine form used across the Muslim world
- Arabic names enter American use in the 1960s and 1970s
- English supplies vowels the Arabic did not fix
- Rasheda appears in the record around 1970
Related forms: Rashida · Rashida · Resit
Pronouncing Rasheda
ruh-SHEE-duh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Arabic gives the middle vowel more length than English does, which is what the extra e in this spelling is trying to capture.
Nicknames for Rasheda
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
- 1976107 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1117reached in 1976
- Change vs 1999
- +20.0%6 in 2001, from 5
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.
Rasheda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rashida in Arabic — spelling variant
- Rashida in Swahili — same name
- Resit in Turkish — related form
Rashedas among us
people named Rasheda are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Rasheda sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is clear, favorable and universally understood in the Muslim world.
- It is read correctly at sight by anybody.
- It works across Arabic, Swahili and English without changing.
- Six English spellings are in circulation and she will be given most of them.
- None of the English spellings is more correct than the others.
- It is closely dated to the 1970s in the American record.
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Rasheda
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Rashedas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Rasheda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rasheda in 2025?
- Rasheda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Rasheda with classmates?
- Rasheda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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