Safaa
A feminine Arabic name meaning "clarity" or "purity".
Name Census estimates that about 485 living Americans carry the first name Safaa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Safaa today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Safaa births was 2016 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Safaa. 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 Safaa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
485
~ 1 in 706,710 Americans
Peak year
2016
34 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,174
Tracked since 1990
Census
Safaa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,307 people with the first name Safaa, which placed it at #10,274 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
#10,274
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,307 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Safaa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safaa is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.3%) and Black (5.8%). 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 Safaa 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 Safaa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.7% · 989
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.3% · 161
- Black or African American5.8% · 76
- Two or more races5.4% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 3
Popularity
Safaa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Safaa 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 245 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Safaa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Safaa 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 Safaa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Safaas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Safaa, while Virginia, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Safaa
The name Safaa is an Arabic name that has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East. It is derived from the Arabic root word "safa," which means "purity" or "clarity." The name carries connotations of transparency, sincerity, and moral virtue.
Safaa has a long history that can be traced back to the pre-Islamic era in the Arabian Peninsula. It was a name used by various tribes and clans in the region, reflecting the importance of purity and honesty in the cultural values of the time.
In Islamic tradition, the name Safaa gained additional significance as it is mentioned in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. The Safa and Marwah hills in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, are sacred sites that Muslims are required to walk between as part of the Hajj pilgrimage rituals.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Safaa can be found in the poetry of the renowned pre-Islamic Arab poet, Imru' al-Qais, who lived in the 6th century CE. He referenced a woman named Safaa in his verses, indicating the name's usage during that era.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Safaa. One such person was Safaa Khudhayri, a renowned Iraqi poet and writer who lived from 1888 to 1959. Her poetic works celebrated love, beauty, and the struggles of the human experience.
Another prominent figure was Safaa Khulusi, an Iraqi artist and painter who was born in 1936. His vibrant and expressive paintings captured the essence of Iraqi culture and society, earning him widespread acclaim in the Arab world.
In the field of science, Safaa Kumri was an Egyptian molecular biologist and geneticist who made significant contributions to the study of plant genetics. She lived from 1940 to 2017 and received numerous awards for her groundbreaking research.
Additionally, Safaa Fathy was an Egyptian actress and singer who rose to fame in the mid-20th century. Born in 1924, she starred in numerous films and Television shows, captivating audiences with her talent and charisma.
Lastly, Safaa Amer was a Palestinian writer and activist who lived from 1953 to 2015. She dedicated her life to advocating for human rights and promoting Palestinian culture, publishing several books and articles on these topics.
The name Safaa has a rich historical legacy, embodying the virtues of purity, clarity, and moral uprightness. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Arabia, and it has been borne by numerous influential figures throughout the centuries, spanning various fields and cultures.
People
Safaa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Safaa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Safaa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Safaa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 485 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Safaa 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 706,710 US residents.
Is Safaa a common name?
We classify Safaa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 490 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Safaa most popular?
The single biggest year for Safaa was 2016, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Safaa is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Safaa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,307 people with the name Safaa, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,274 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 Safaa 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 Safaa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Safaa leans strongly female. 1,073 people counted with this name were female (82.3%), compared with 230 male bearers (17.7%). 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 Safaa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safaa is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.3%) and Black (5.8%). 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 Safaa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Safaa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.7% (989 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 Safaa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Safaa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Safaa 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 Safaa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Safaa 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 Safaa 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 Safaa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.