Ruqaiya
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- roo-KYE-yah
- Origin
- Arabic
- UK rank, 2025
- #2,856 for girls
Ruqaiya is a girls' name of Arabic origin. In 2025 it ranked 2,856th for girls in the UK (9 babies).
What does Ruqaiya mean?
Arabic: spelling of Ruqaiyah, itself a variant of Ruqayyah
Ruqayyah was a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and wife of Uthman, the third caliph.
Meaning borrowed from Ruqaiyah.
Is Ruqaiya a girl's or a boy's name?
Ruqaiya is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 9 girls in the UK. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Ruqaiya in the UK?
- Rank in 2025
- 2,856th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 9 about 1 in 31,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Falling down 28% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 9 girls in the UK were named Ruqaiya, making it the 2,856th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 2,159th. Its busiest year was 2020, with 13 girls.
2025 had more girls named Ruqaiya than any year since 2020.
Half of all the girls named Ruqaiya in the UK since 1996 were born between 2010 and 2020, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 17 girls in the UK were given Ruqaiya or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #1,538, up from #2,856 for this spelling alone.
- Ruqaiya 9
- Ruqaiyah 8
Among girls in 2025, it was 2,786th in England and Wales.
Ruqaiya in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #2,856 |
| 2024 | 5 | #4,253 |
| 2023 | 4 | #4,915 |
| 2022 | 4 | #4,870 |
| 2021 | 6 | #3,697 |
| 2020 | 13 | #2,159 |
| 2019 | 5 | #4,214 |
| 2018 | 7 | #3,344 |
| 2017 | 8 | #3,102 |
| 2016 | 5 | #4,290 |
| 2015 | 11 | #2,458 |
| 2014 | 6 | #3,702 |
| 2013 | 10 | #2,599 |
| 2012 | 4 | #5,058 |
| 2011 | 11 | #2,393 |
| 2010 | 4 | #4,931 |
| 2009 | 4 | #4,795 |
| 2008 | 0 | – |
| 2007 | 6 | #3,396 |
| 2006 | 1 | #6,685 |
| 2005 | 3 | #4,976 |
| 2004 | 4 | #3,916 |
| 2003 | 0 | – |
| 2002 | 1 | #5,540 |
| 2001 | 4 | #3,427 |
| 2000 | 4 | #3,399 |
| 1999 | 6 | #2,559 |
Names like Ruqaiya
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Safa, Zainab, Rahma, Abeeha, Safiya, Nusaybah, Hafsa, Rumaysa, Aaliyah, Khadija, Hiba, Amira
Other spellings of Ruqaiya
Names related to Ruqaiya
More Arabic names
Muhammad, Layla, Mohammed, Lyla, Mohammad, Zara, Amir, Fatima, Ali, Yahya, Zayn, Aisha, Omar, Zahra, Hamza, Kairo
Sources
Figures from Baby names in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics), Babies' first names (National Records of Scotland) and Baby names (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Ruqaiya: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/ruqaiya, updated 20 October 2026.