Rasheed
An Arabic masculine name meaning one who is rightly guided or who follows the straight path.
Name Census estimates that about 4,690 living Americans carry the first name Rasheed. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Rasheed today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rasheed births was 1995 (225 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rasheed. 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 Rasheed with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 73,082 Americans
Peak year
1995
225 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,748
Tracked since 1968
Census
Rasheed in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,255 people with the first name Rasheed, which placed it at #4,405 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
#4,405
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,255 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rasheed
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rasheed is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are White (7.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.9%). 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 Rasheed 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 Rasheed at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.6% · 3,302
- White7.2% · 308
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 253
- Two or more races4.9% · 209
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 158
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 25
Gender
Gender distribution for Rasheed
Out of the 4,836 babies given the name Rasheed since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Rasheed as a male name
- Ranked #3,748 in 2024
- 30 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (220 births)
Rasheed as a female name
- Ranked #15,169 in 1995
- 5 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1976 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rasheed leans strongly male. 4,214 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 50 female bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Rasheed: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rasheed from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,514 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rasheed 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 Rasheed during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rasheeds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Rasheed, while Wisconsin, Missouri, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 167 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rasheed
The name Rasheed finds its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word "rashada," which means "to be rightly guided" or "to follow the right path." The name is believed to have emerged during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century CE, in the Arabian Peninsula.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rasheed can be found in the context of Islamic literature and history. In the famous collection of hadiths (sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad), there is a reference to a companion named Rasheed ibn Sa'd, who lived during the time of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE.
Throughout history, the name Rasheed has been associated with notable figures from various fields. One such figure was Al-Rasheed, the fifth Abbasid caliph who ruled from 786 to 809 CE. He was known for his patronage of arts, literature, and sciences, as well as his efforts in expanding the Abbasid empire.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Rasheed al-Din Sinan, also known as the "Old Man of the Mountain" (1135-1192 CE). He was the leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect and played a significant role in the Crusades, employing a group of highly skilled assassins known as the Hashashins.
In the literary realm, Rasheed Jahan (1605-1676 CE) was a renowned Urdu and Persian poet from the Mughal era. His poetic works, written under the pen name "Qudsi," are celebrated for their depth and elegance.
The name Rasheed has also been associated with notable figures in modern times. For example, Rasheed Wallace (born 1974 CE) is a former professional basketball player from the United States, known for his successful career in the NBA and winning a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
Another notable figure was Rasheed Masood (1935-2017 CE), a Pakistani politician and former Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). He played a significant role in shaping the political landscape of Pakistan during his career.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rasheed
People
Rasheed + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rasheed 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
Rasheed: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rasheed?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,690 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rasheed 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 73,082 US residents.
Is Rasheed a common name?
We classify Rasheed as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,836 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rasheed most popular?
The single biggest year for Rasheed was 1995, when 225 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rasheed 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 Rasheed in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,255 people with the name Rasheed, or 1.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,405 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 Rasheed 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 Rasheed?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rasheed leans strongly male. 4,214 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 50 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Rasheed?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rasheed is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are White (7.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.9%). 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 Rasheed most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rasheed in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (3,302 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 Rasheed in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rasheed a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Rasheed 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 Rasheed still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rasheed 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 Rasheed 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 Rasheed?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.