Rokia
A feminine name of Malian/Arabic origin meaning "morning dew or moisture".
Name Census estimates that about 115 living Americans carry the first name Rokia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rokia today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rokia births was 2004 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rokia. 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.
People living today
115
~ 1 in 2,980,473 Americans
Peak year
2004
10 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,877
Tracked since 1995
Census
Rokia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 235 people with the first name Rokia, which placed it at #34,648 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
#34,648
National first-name rank
People counted
235
235 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
66.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rokia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rokia is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Rokia 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 Rokia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American66.4% · 156
- White21.3% · 50
- Two or more races6.4% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 3
Popularity
Rokia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rokia 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 44 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rokia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rokia 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 Rokia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rokias live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rokia
The name Rokia has its origins in the Bambara language spoken by the Bambara people of Mali. Bambara is a Mande language and one of the largest vernacular languages in West Africa. The name Rokia likely derives from the Bambara word "roko," which means "joy" or "happiness."
In ancient times, the Bambara were a significant ethnic group within the Mali Empire, which flourished in the 13th to 17th centuries. The empire was renowned for its wealth, trade, and cultural achievements, including the famous University of Timbuktu. It is possible that the name Rokia was prevalent during this era among the Bambara people.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Rokia can be found in the Epic of Sundiata, a medieval oral tradition that recounts the life of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. The epic, which dates back to the 13th century, mentions a character named Rokia, although the exact details of her role are unclear.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rokia. One of the most famous is Rokia Traoré, a renowned Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist born in 1974. Her music blends traditional Malian sounds with elements of jazz, rock, and folk, and she has gained international acclaim for her innovative style and socially conscious lyrics.
Another notable figure is Rokia Koné, a Malian politician and human rights activist born in 1951. She has served as a member of the National Assembly of Mali and has been a vocal advocate for women's rights and gender equality in her country.
In the world of literature, Rokia Ba is a celebrated Senegalese writer and academic born in 1934. Her works, including the novel "Un Chant Écarlate," explore themes of identity, gender, and post-colonial experiences in West Africa.
Rokia Bamba, born in 1983, is a Burkinabé professional basketball player who has competed in several international tournaments, including the Olympic Games and the FIBA World Cup.
Finally, Rokia Meguire, born in 1978, is a British-Malian artist and photographer known for her portraiture and documentary work exploring themes of identity, diaspora, and cross-cultural experiences.
People
Rokia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rokia 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
Rokia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rokia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 115 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rokia 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 2,980,473 US residents.
Is Rokia a common name?
We classify Rokia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 116 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rokia most popular?
The single biggest year for Rokia was 2004, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rokia is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rokia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 235 people with the name Rokia, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,648 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 Rokia 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 Rokia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rokia appears almost entirely female. Of the 231 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Rokia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rokia is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Rokia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rokia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.4% (156 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 Rokia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rokia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rokia 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 Rokia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rokia 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 Rokia 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 are called Rokia?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.