Takiyah
Feminine
For a whole class of American names there is no way to tell a borrowing from a coinage, and Takiyah is one of them. It could be the Arabic word for pious, or it could be the Ta- prefix and the -iyah ending, and the record will not say which.
How old is the name Takiyah?
Takiyah first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Takiyah alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 1,900 people named Takiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Takiyah most popular?
Takiyah peaked in 1976, reaching #1464 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,643 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Takiyah
Etymology has limits and it is more honest to name them than to pick the flattering option. In the 1970s two things were happening in American naming at the same time. Arabic names were being adopted in large numbers, so genuine borrowings appear in the data with their meanings intact. And the prefix-and-suffix workshop was at full production, generating names from Ta-, La-, Sha- and Da- with endings like -iyah, -isha and -ika, several of which were modeled on the shapes of Arabic names. A name that could be produced by either process, and that appears in the same years and the same communities as both, cannot be assigned. What can be said is what the two possibilities are, and that a confident single answer would be an invention.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Takiyah may be from Arabic taqiyya, feminine of taqiy, God-fearing or pious, from taqwa. It may equally be an American formation from the Ta- prefix and the -iyah ending, both productive in the 1970s. Its peak in 1976 sits in a decade when both processes were producing names at once, and no evidence distinguishes them.
Pronouncing Takiyah
tuh-KEE-uh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The final h marks the vowel and is not sounded.
Nicknames for Takiyah
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 girls named
- 200588 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1464reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- +50.0%9 in 2025, from 6
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.
Takiyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Takiya in English — spelling variant
- Taqiyya in Arabic — related form
Takiyahs among us
people named Takiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Takiyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Takiyah
- #10107
- Takiyah on the 2025 chart
- #945
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Takiyah went to 9 girls in 2025, but Takiya is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 15, which makes it the 945th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,162 places above the chart.
- Takiyah9
- Takiya6
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Takiyah 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 Rubbie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Takiyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rubbie climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rubbie's path sketches the road Takiyah is walking now.
Takiyah 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
Takiyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Takiyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kiya works as a short form and is a current name.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- The spelling makes the pronunciation clear.
- Its origin genuinely cannot be determined.
- Takiya and Takiyah both appear in the records.
- The 1976 peak dates it closely.
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Takiyah
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Takiyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Takiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Takiyah?
- Takiyah is the most-used spelling in US records — 9 of the 15 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Takiya.
- How popular is the name Takiyah in 2025?
- Takiyah ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Takiyah?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Takiyah — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Takiyah with classmates?
- Takiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Takiyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Takiyah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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