Nawaf
A masculine Arabic name meaning "generous" or "exalted".
Name Census estimates that about 299 living Americans carry the first name Nawaf. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nawaf today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nawaf births was 2015 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nawaf. 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 Nawaf with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
299
~ 1 in 1,146,336 Americans
Peak year
2015
28 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,102
Tracked since 1998
Census
Nawaf in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 452 people with the first name Nawaf, which placed it at #22,141 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
#22,141
National first-name rank
People counted
452
452 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nawaf
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nawaf is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Nawaf 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 Nawaf at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.0% · 348
- Two or more races9.7% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.4% · 38
- Black or African American4.2% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 3
Popularity
Nawaf: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nawaf from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 193 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nawaf remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nawaf 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 Nawaf during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nawafs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nawaf
The name Nawaf originates from the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word "N-W-F," which means "to be generous" or "to give freely." The name is believed to have emerged in the Arabian Peninsula during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries CE.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Nawaf can be found in Arabic literature and poetry from the Umayyad and Abbasid eras. It was used as a masculine given name, often associated with generosity, nobility, and hospitality, which were highly valued traits in Arab societies.
In Islamic history, there are mentions of individuals named Nawaf, although their significance may vary. One notable figure was Nawaf ibn Fudayl, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who participated in the Battle of Hunayn in 630 CE.
Throughout the centuries, the name Nawaf has been borne by various influential figures in the Arab world. One such individual was Nawaf Al-Hazmi (1287-1349 CE), a renowned Arab poet and scholar from the Mamluk period in Egypt and Syria.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Nawaf Al-Buraik (1690-1756 CE), a respected Islamic scholar and jurist from the Arabian Peninsula, known for his contributions to Islamic jurisprudence.
In more recent times, Nawaf Al-Sabah (1933-2008 CE) was a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and served as the Crown Prince of Kuwait from the 1960s until his death.
Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1933-2012 CE) was a senior member of the Saudi royal family and served as the Governor of Riyadh for over 50 years, from 1953 to 2011.
Another notable figure was Nawaf Salam (1936-2022 CE), a prominent Lebanese diplomat and jurist who served as the Secretary-General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) from 1976 to 1988.
People
Nawaf + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nawaf as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nawaf: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nawaf?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 299 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nawaf 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 1,146,336 US residents.
Is Nawaf a common name?
We classify Nawaf as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 301 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nawaf most popular?
The single biggest year for Nawaf was 2015, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nawaf is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nawaf in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 452 people with the name Nawaf, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,141 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 Nawaf 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 Nawaf?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nawaf leans strongly male. 445 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 13 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Nawaf?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nawaf is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Nawaf most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nawaf in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (348 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 Nawaf in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nawaf a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nawaf in the SSA data are male. 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 Nawaf still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nawaf 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 Nawaf 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 share the name Nawaf?
Want to know how many people have the name Nawaf? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.