Halimah

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Halima in BD Bangladesh, IN India, PK Pakistan and 13 more, Халима in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, KG Kyrgyzstan and 3 more, Khalima in FR France and Haleemah in IQ Iraq.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Halimah is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name13K records spelled Halimah6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, Nigeria, United Kingdom

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Ḥalīmah, Hālīmåh

• a separate given name228 records spelled Halimah3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Malaysia

  Also written Ḥalīmah, Ḥalimah

43 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Halimah is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• gentle; mild; gracious

  as a name·Muslim baby names (our 2,000 meaningful and beautiful names for boys and girls) English-Urdu with Roman

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 47 years between 1975–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Halimah bint Abi Dhuaybb. 550SAfoster-mother and wetnurse of Muhammad
• Halima Begumb. 1460TRnot in their usual nameMother of Ismail I
• Naamab. 1934TNnot in their usual nameTunisian singer (1934–2020)
• Halima Daoudb. 1946TNnot in their usual nameTunisian actress
• Magoolb. 1948SOnot in their usual nameSomalian musician (1948–2004)
• Halima Ferhatb. 1950MAnot in their usual nameMoroccan historian
• Halimah Yacobb. 1954SG8th President of Singapore
• Halimah Alib. 1960MYMalaysian politician
• Halima Bashirb. 1979SDnot in their usual nameSudanese doctor and author
• Halima Karaouanenot in their usual nameactress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 105 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Halimah?

We estimate roughly 18 thousand people bear Halimah (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Halimah have the most bearers?

Halimah is most frequently recorded in Bangladesh, where it is most often spelled halima.

How common is Halimah compared with other names?

In Bangladesh, Halimah is the 32nd most common given name of 28,624 given names recorded there.

Is Halimah a male or female name?

Halimah is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Halimah mean?

Recorded meaning: Foster-mother of Prophet MuHammad after his mother died.