Rim
A feminine Arabic name meaning "wild gazelle" or "white antelope".
Name Census estimates that about 106 living Americans carry the first name Rim. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rim today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rim births was 2000 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rim. 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 Rim with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
106
~ 1 in 3,233,531 Americans
Peak year
2000
9 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,936
Tracked since 1998
Census
Rim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 682 people with the first name Rim, which placed it at #16,503 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
#16,503
National first-name rank
People counted
682
682 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rim is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Rim 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 Rim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.9% · 477
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.2% · 104
- Black or African American9.1% · 62
- Two or more races4.1% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Rim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rim from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 57 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rim 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 Rim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rim
The name Rim has its origins in the Middle East and is believed to have derived from the Aramaic language, which was widely spoken in ancient times across regions such as Mesopotamia, Syria, and parts of the Levant. The word "rim" in Aramaic meant "elevated" or "exalted," indicating a sense of honor and respect associated with this name.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Rim can be found in the Bible's Book of Job, where Rim is mentioned as one of Job's friends who visited him during his time of suffering. This biblical reference suggests that the name Rim has been in use since ancient times, potentially as early as the 6th century BCE.
In the field of ancient Mesopotamian literature, there is a known figure named Rim-Sin, who ruled as the king of the city-state of Larsa in modern-day Iraq during the Old Babylonian period, around the 19th century BCE. Rim-Sin was a powerful ruler who expanded his kingdom's influence and left behind numerous inscriptions and records bearing his name.
Moving forward in history, one notable figure with the name Rim was Rim Giray, a Crimean Tatar ruler who lived in the 16th century CE. He served as the Khan (ruler) of the Crimean Khanate from 1551 to 1567 and played a significant role in the region's political and military affairs during that time.
Another historical figure bearing the name Rim was Rim Bakshi, a prominent Sikh military leader and warrior who lived in the 17th century CE. He served under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, and played a crucial role in the defense of the Sikh community during the conflicts with the Mughal Empire.
In more recent times, one notable individual with the name Rim was Rim Khouri, a Palestinian-American writer and scholar who lived from 1923 to 2019. She was known for her works on Middle Eastern literature and culture, and her contributions to promoting cross-cultural understanding between the East and West.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Rim, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and historical significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Rim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rim 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
Rim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rim 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 3,233,531 US residents.
Is Rim a common name?
We classify Rim as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 107 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rim most popular?
The single biggest year for Rim was 2000, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rim is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 682 people with the name Rim, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,503 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 Rim 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 Rim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rim leans strongly female. 579 people counted with this name were female (85.3%), compared with 100 male bearers (14.7%). 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 Rim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rim is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Rim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.9% (477 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 Rim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rim a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rim 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 Rim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rim 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 Rim 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 Americans are named Rim?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.