A negative active material for a rechargeable lithium battery, a method of preparing the same, and a rechargeable lithium battery including the same, the negative active material including carbon core particles; a metallic material on the carbon core particles; and a carbon thin film covering the carbon core particles and the metallic material, wherein the carbon core particles have an interplanar spacing (d002) of about 0.34 nm to about 0.40 nm at a (002) plane measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using a CuKα ray, and the carbon thin film has a thickness of about 1 nm to about 500 nm.