Khadija
A feminine Arabic name meaning "one who precedes" or "early riser".
Name Census estimates that about 4,907 living Americans carry the first name Khadija. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Khadija today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khadija births was 2024 (231 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khadija. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Khadija with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,850 Americans
Peak year
2024
231 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,073
Tracked since 1965
Census
Khadija in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,084 people with the first name Khadija, which placed it at #3,104 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,104
National first-name rank
People counted
7.1K
7,084 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
41.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khadija
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khadija is Black at 41.3%. The next largest groups are White (26.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (24.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Khadija described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Khadija at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American41.3% · 2,923
- White26.5% · 1,879
- Asian and Pacific Islander24.6% · 1,744
- Two or more races5.8% · 414
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 113
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 11
Popularity
Khadija: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khadija from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,555 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Khadija remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khadija by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Khadija during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khadijas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Khadija, while Utah, Indiana, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 127 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khadija
The name Khadija is of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "khadra," which means "green" or "verdant." It is a feminine name that has been in use since ancient times in the Arabian Peninsula.
The name Khadija holds a significant place in Islamic history and tradition. It was borne by Khadija bint Khuwaylid, the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad and the first person to convert to Islam. Born in 555 CE in Mecca, she was a successful businesswoman and highly respected in her community for her wisdom and virtue.
Khadija's name is mentioned numerous times in the Quran and Islamic literature, highlighting her pivotal role in supporting the Prophet Muhammad during the early days of Islam. She is revered as the "Mother of the Believers" and is considered one of the most influential women in Islamic history.
Beyond its religious significance, the name Khadija has been used throughout history by notable figures across various cultures. One notable example is Khadija al-Kubra, a 10th-century Sufi mystic and scholar from Baghdad, who was renowned for her spiritual teachings and contributions to Islamic mysticism.
Another notable figure is Khadija Ismayilova, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist born in 1976, who has been recognized for her courageous reporting on corruption and human rights issues in her country.
In the realm of literature, Khadija Sesay is a Sierra Leonean writer and poet born in 1965, known for her works exploring themes of identity, diaspora, and the experiences of women in West Africa.
Khadija Saye was a British-Gambian artist born in 1992, who tragically lost her life in the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017. Her powerful self-portraits and explorations of identity and diaspora gained recognition after her untimely passing.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Khadija, each contributing to their respective fields and leaving a lasting impact.
People
Khadija + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khadija as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Khadija: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khadija?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,907 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khadija going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 69,850 US residents.
Is Khadija a common name?
We classify Khadija as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,013 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khadija most popular?
The single biggest year for Khadija was 2024, when 231 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khadija is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khadija in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,084 people with the name Khadija, or 2.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,104 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Khadija in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Khadija?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khadija appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,084 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Khadija?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khadija is Black at 41.3%. The next largest groups are White (26.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (24.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Khadija most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khadija in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.3% (2,923 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Khadija in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khadija a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Khadija in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Khadija still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khadija in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Khadija can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Khadija?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.