Latifah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "delicate" or "graceful".
Name Census estimates that about 1,410 living Americans carry the first name Latifah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Latifah today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Latifah births was 1990 (300 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Latifah. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Latifah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 243,088 Americans
Peak year
1990
300 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,564
Tracked since 1974
Census
Latifah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,297 people with the first name Latifah, which placed it at #10,338 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
#10,338
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,297 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Latifah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Latifah is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are White (8.9%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Latifah 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 Latifah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.1% · 1,065
- White8.9% · 116
- Two or more races4.0% · 52
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
Popularity
Latifah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Latifah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 947 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Latifah 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 Latifah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Latifahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Latifah, while Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 38 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Latifah
The name Latifah is of Arabic origin, derived from the Arabic word "latif" which means "subtle", "delicate", or "refined". It has its roots in the rich cultural and linguistic heritage of the Arab world, where names often reflect desired virtues or qualities.
The name Latifah can be traced back to the 7th century, during the time of the Islamic Golden Age. It is believed to have been used as a name during this period, when Arabic language and culture flourished, and the Islamic empire expanded across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe.
Historically, the name Latifah has been mentioned in various Islamic texts and literature. It is said to be one of the 99 names of Allah (God) in the Islamic tradition, which represents the divine attribute of subtlety and refinement.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Latifah is Latifah bint al-Hajjaj, a renowned Arab poet who lived in the 7th century. She was known for her eloquence and literary contributions during the Umayyad Caliphate.
In the 10th century, Latifah al-Ghazali was a prominent female scholar and theologian from Persia (present-day Iran). She was the sister of the renowned Islamic philosopher, Al-Ghazali, and played a significant role in the intellectual and religious discourse of her time.
Another notable figure with the name Latifah is Latifah al-Arousiah, an 11th-century Arab mathematician and astronomer from Aleppo, Syria. She made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and is recognized for her work on spherical geometry.
In the 13th century, Latifah bint Dawood al-Baghdadi was a renowned physician and scholar from Baghdad, Iraq. She was widely respected for her expertise in medicine and her contributions to the field of ophthalmology.
In more recent history, Latifah Issaka was a prominent Ghanaian writer and educator who lived in the 20th century (1920-1997). She played a crucial role in promoting education and literature in Ghana and is celebrated for her literary works and activism.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Latifah, reflecting its cultural and linguistic significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Latifah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Latifah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Latifah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Latifah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,410 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Latifah 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 243,088 US residents.
Is Latifah a common name?
We classify Latifah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,470 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Latifah most popular?
The single biggest year for Latifah was 1990, when 300 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Latifah is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Latifah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,297 people with the name Latifah, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,338 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 Latifah 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 Latifah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Latifah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,305 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Latifah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Latifah is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are White (8.9%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Latifah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Latifah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (1,065 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 Latifah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Latifah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Latifah 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 Latifah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Latifah 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 Latifah 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 have Latifah as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Latifah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.