Rafeek
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "friend, companion, or associate".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Rafeek. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rafeek today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rafeek births was 1994 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rafeek. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rafeek. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1994
5 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
1994 SSA rank
#9,901
Tracked since 1994
Census
Rafeek in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 128 people with the first name Rafeek, which placed it at #49,019 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
#49,019
National first-name rank
People counted
128
128 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rafeek
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafeek is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Black (26.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (25.8%). 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 Rafeek 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 Rafeek at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.9% · 46
- Black or African American26.6% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander25.8% · 33
- Two or more races7.0% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 3
Popularity
Rafeek: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Rafeek 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 Rafeek during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Rafeek
The name Rafeek has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, originating from the word "rafiq" which means "companion" or "friend." It first emerged during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century AD, when Arabic was the dominant language in the Middle East and North Africa.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Rafeek was Rafeek ibn Abi Rafeek, a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist who lived in the 8th century AD. He was known for his extensive knowledge of Islamic law and his contributions to the field of Hadith studies.
Throughout history, the name Rafeek has been associated with individuals from various walks of life. One notable figure was Rafeek al-Isfahani, a 10th century Persian poet and writer who was renowned for his mastery of the Arabic language and his beautiful compositions.
In the 12th century, Rafeek al-Din al-Idrisi, a famous Arab geographer and cartographer, gained recognition for his groundbreaking work, "Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq" (The Pleasure of the Longing in Traversing the Regions), which contained detailed maps and descriptions of various parts of the world.
Another prominent individual with the name Rafeek was Rafeek al-Tahtawi, an Egyptian scholar and writer who lived in the 19th century. He played a significant role in the Egyptian Renaissance and is considered one of the pioneers of the modern Arabic literary movement.
In more recent times, Rafeek Ahmed Khan, a Pakistani politician and diplomat who served as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1997 to 1998, carried this name with distinction.
While the name Rafeek has its origins in the Arab world, it has transcended cultural boundaries and has been adopted by individuals from diverse backgrounds, reflecting the universal appeal of its meaning as a "companion" or "friend."
People
Rafeek + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rafeek as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rafeek: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rafeek?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rafeek 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Rafeek a common name?
We classify Rafeek as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rafeek most popular?
The single biggest year for Rafeek was 1994, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rafeek is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rafeek in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 128 people with the name Rafeek, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #49,019 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 Rafeek 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 Rafeek?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rafeek appears almost entirely male. Of the 124 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Rafeek?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafeek is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Black (26.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (25.8%). 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 Rafeek most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rafeek in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.9% (46 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 Rafeek in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rafeek a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rafeek in the SSA data are male. 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 Rafeek still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rafeek 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 Rafeek 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 many people have the name Rafeek?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.