Rashida
Feminine · “rightly guided”
Rashida is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,999 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
The Arabic root behind Rashida is about knowing where you are going. It covers right guidance, good sense and — in one particular legal use — coming of age: the age of rushd is the age at which a person is judged capable of managing their own affairs. Rashida is the feminine, and it means someone who has that quality rather than someone who is merely told what to do.
How old is the name Rashida?
Rashida first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Rashida alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 2,900 people named Rashida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rashida most popular?
Rashida peaked in 1977, reaching #535 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,673 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rushd to Rashida
The story of Rashida
Names built on this root are used across the Arabic-speaking world, and the most famous bearer of the masculine is a caliph whose byname the Thousand and One Nights made familiar in Europe. Rashida entered American records in the 1960s, arriving through Arab migration and, in much larger numbers, through African American families choosing Arabic names deliberately. It peaked in the late 1970s. The a ending is the standard Arabic feminine, and it is the reason the name is read as a woman's on sight in every language that uses it.
Meaning
rightly guided, of good sense
From the Arabic root r-sh-d, which produces rushd — maturity, right conduct, the capacity to manage oneself — and rashid, one who possesses it. Al-Rashid is counted among the names of God in Islamic tradition. The feminine rashida is an ordinary adjective as well as a name.
How the name formed
- rushd
- Rashid
- Rashida
Related forms: Rashida · Reşide · Rasheeda · Rashida
Pronouncing Rashida
rah-SHEE-dah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the second vowel long. Nothing in the spelling causes an English reader difficulty, which is unusual for an Arabic name.
Nicknames for Rashida
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
- 1964
- Most girls named
- 1977338 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #535reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%6 in 2025, 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.
Rashida in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rashida in Arabic — same name
- Reşide in Turkish — same name
- Rasheeda in Urdu — transliteration
- Rashida in Swahili — same name
Rashidas among us
people named Rashida are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Rashida
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Marilee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rashida's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marilee climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marilee's path sketches the road Rashida is walking now.
Rashida 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
Rashida beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rashida in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is specific and adult — good judgment rather than beauty or virtue.
- It is used across the Arabic-speaking world and in East Africa.
- Three open syllables that survive any accent intact.
- It is spelled phonetically for English readers, which many Arabic names are not.
- Rasheeda and Rashidah both appear in English writing, so the spelling has to be given.
- It is recorded for boys as well as girls, though the a ending marks it as feminine in Arabic.
- Outside Muslim and Arab communities the name needs a short introduction.
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What they receive
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Rashida
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rashidas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Rashida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rashida in 2025?
- Rashida ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rashida?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Rashida — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rashida with classmates?
- Rashida will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rashida
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rashida? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rashida and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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