Ruqaya
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- roo-KAY-ya
- Origin
- Arabic
- UK rank, 2025
- #2,344 for girls
- US rank, 2025
- #8,360 for girls
Ruqaya is a girls' name of Arabic origin. In 2025 it ranked 2,344th for girls in the UK (12 babies) and 8,360th for girls in the US (12 babies).
What does Ruqaya mean?
Arabic: spelling of Ruqayyah
Ruqayyah was a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and Khadija, and wife of the third caliph, Uthman.
Meaning borrowed from Ruqayyah.
Is Ruqaya a girl's or a boy's name?
Ruqaya is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 12 girls in the UK and 12 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Ruqaya in the UK?
- Rank in 2025
- 2,344th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 12 about 1 in 23,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Steady up 4% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 12 girls in the UK were named Ruqaya, making it the 2,344th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 3,630th. Its busiest year was 2013, with 22 girls.
2025 had more girls named Ruqaya than any year since 2018.
Half of all the girls named Ruqaya in the UK since 1996 were born between 2009 and 2018, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 153 girls in the UK were given Ruqaya or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #331, up from #2,344 for this spelling alone.
Among girls in 2025, it was 2,276th in England and Wales.
Ruqaya in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #2,344 |
| 2024 | 8 | #3,076 |
| 2023 | 9 | #2,841 |
| 2022 | 6 | #3,728 |
| 2021 | 7 | #3,338 |
| 2020 | 6 | #3,630 |
| 2019 | 8 | #3,018 |
| 2018 | 14 | #2,088 |
| 2017 | 13 | #2,210 |
| 2016 | 17 | #1,853 |
| 2015 | 16 | #1,900 |
| 2014 | 22 | #1,494 |
| 2013 | 22 | #1,505 |
| 2012 | 16 | #1,914 |
| 2011 | 14 | #2,032 |
| 2010 | 9 | #2,741 |
| 2009 | 12 | #2,153 |
| 2008 | 13 | #2,046 |
| 2007 | 9 | #2,543 |
| 2006 | 11 | #2,119 |
| 2005 | 5 | #3,543 |
| 2004 | 12 | #1,812 |
| 2003 | 3 | #4,560 |
| 2002 | 0 | – |
| 2001 | 0 | – |
| 2000 | 4 | #3,399 |
| 1999 | 0 | – |
| 1998 | 4 | #3,310 |
How popular is Ruqaya in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- 8,360th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 12 about 1 in 130,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to call too few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 12 girls in the US were named Ruqaya, making it the 8,360th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 15,083rd. Its busiest year was 2023, with 13 girls. It first appears in the records in 2006.
Half of all the girls named Ruqaya in the US since 1880 were born between 2011 and 2022, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 75 girls in the US were given Ruqaya or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #2,054, up from #8,360 for this spelling alone.
Ruqaya in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,360 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,551 |
| 2023 | 13 | #8,050 |
| 2022 | 6 | #13,586 |
| 2021 | 6 | #13,459 |
| 2020 | 5 | #15,083 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,106 |
| 2018 | 5 | #15,677 |
| 2017 | 9 | #10,685 |
| 2016 | 8 | #11,776 |
| 2015 | 11 | #9,476 |
| 2014 | 8 | #11,925 |
| 2013 | 7 | #13,145 |
| 2012 | 8 | #12,193 |
| 2011 | 10 | #10,370 |
| 2010 | 5 | #16,985 |
| 2009 | 5 | #17,288 |
| 2008 | 9 | #11,594 |
| 2007 | 5 | #17,630 |
| 2006 | 6 | #15,147 |
Names like Ruqaya
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Safa, Abeeha, Nusaybah, Rahma, Rumaysa, Hafsa, Zainab, Aaliyah, Safiya, Sumayyah, Safaa, Hiba
Other spellings of Ruqaya
Names related to Ruqaya
More Arabic names
Muhammad, Layla, Mohammed, Lyla, Mohammad, Zara, Amir, Amira, Fatima, Ali, Yahya, Zayn, Aisha, Omar, Zahra, Hamza
Sources
Figures from Baby names in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics), Babies' first names (National Records of Scotland), Baby names (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) and Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Ruqaya: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/ruqaya, updated 20 October 2026.