Tariq
Masculine · “one who knocks”
Tariq is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,878 boys against 7 girls since 1880.
Tariq is the one who knocks — the morning star, whose knocking is the Quran's own image, and the name of the general who gave Gibraltar its name.
How old is the name Tariq?
Tariq first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Tariq alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 6,700 people named Tariq are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tariq most popular?
Tariq peaked in 1998, reaching #444 nationally. Today it ranks #1585, 1,141 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Tariq appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From tariq to Tariq
The story of Tariq
Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from Africa in 711 and landed at the rock that took his name — Jabal Tariq, Tariq's mountain, which English wore down to Gibraltar. His campaign brought most of Iberia under Muslim rule within a decade. The name is used across the Muslim world and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
one who knocks, the night visitor
From the Arabic tariq, 'one who knocks' or 'one who comes by night', from a root meaning to strike. Sura 86 is At-Tariq and applies the word to a bright star that pierces the night. The word is ordinary Arabic and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- tariq
- Tariq
Related forms: طارق · Tarik · Tarık · Tariq
Pronouncing Tariq
TAH-rik
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic gives the t and q sounds English does not have; the q is far back in the throat.
Nicknames for Tariq
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
- 1963
- Most boys named
- 1998514 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #444reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −19.5%107 in 2025, from 133
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.
Tariq in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- طارق in Arabic — transliteration
- Tarik in English — spelling variant
- Tarık in Turkish — related form
- Tariq in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, Georgia.
Tariqs among us
people named Tariq are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,963 born in 2025 was named Tariq
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tariq
- #1585
- Tariq on the 2025 chart
- #785
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tariq went to 107 boys in 2025, but Tarik is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 143, which makes it the 785th most-given boys’ name of the year — 800 places above the chart.
- Tariq107
- Tarik36
About 1 boy in 11,945 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,963 for Tariq 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 Garth test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tariq's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Garth climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Garth's path sketches the road Tariq is walking now.
Tariq 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
Where Tariq is headed
Tariq should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Tariq beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tariq in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A general whose name still marks a strait on every map of Europe carries it.
- The knocking-star image from the Quran is genuinely striking.
- It is used across Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and Malay naming.
- The Arabic q has no English equivalent and is usually flattened to k.
- Tarik and Tareq are both established spellings.
- The Tar clipping is unfortunate in English.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Tariq
Masculine · #1585 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tariqs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,700 people named Tariq are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tariq?
- Tariq is the most-used spelling in US records — 107 of the 143 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Tarik.
- How popular is the name Tariq in 2025?
- Tariq ranks #1585 among US boy names in 2025, with 107 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tariq?
- About 1 in every 15,963 US boys born in 2025 was named Tariq — 107 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tariq with classmates?
- Tariq will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tariq
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sulaiman#1585 · Zohan#1585 · Terrence#1585 · Chester#1585 · Karl#1585 · Nisaiah#1585 · Said#1585 · Delijah#1585
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tariq? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tariq and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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