Safiyah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "sincere and pure".
Name Census estimates that about 759 living Americans carry the first name Safiyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Safiyah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Safiyah births was 2023 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Safiyah. 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 Safiyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
759
~ 1 in 451,587 Americans
Peak year
2023
47 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,351
Tracked since 1985
Census
Safiyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 569 people with the first name Safiyah, which placed it at #18,829 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
#18,829
National first-name rank
People counted
569
569 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Safiyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safiyah is Black at 45.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.2%) and White (13.9%). 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 Safiyah 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 Safiyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.3% · 258
- Asian and Pacific Islander23.2% · 132
- White13.9% · 79
- Two or more races9.8% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 44
Popularity
Safiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Safiyah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 279 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Safiyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Safiyah 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 Safiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Safiyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Safiyah, while Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Safiyah
The name Safiyah originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the word "safi" which means "pure" or "sincere". It is a feminine name that has been in use for centuries in the Islamic world and the Middle East.
The earliest known historical reference to the name Safiyah comes from the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE. Safiyah bint Huyayy was a Jewish woman from the tribe of Banu Nadir who became one of the wives of the Prophet after her husband was killed in battle. She is remembered as a pious and respected figure in Islamic history.
In the 8th century CE, Safiyah al-Sulamiyyah was a renowned Islamic scholar and poet from Medina. She was known for her expertise in hadith (sayings of the Prophet) and her contributions to the field of Arabic literature.
Another notable bearer of the name was Safiyah al-Zahra, who lived in the 12th century CE. She was the daughter of the famous Sufi poet and philosopher, Ibn Arabi, and was herself a respected scholar and spiritual leader.
In the 19th century, Safiyah Khatun was a influential figure in the Ottoman Empire. She was the wife of Sultan Abdulhamid II and played a significant role in promoting education and charitable works during her husband's reign.
More recently, Safiyah Al-Bahlani was a prominent Yemeni activist and politician who fought for women's rights and social justice in the 20th century. She served as a member of the Yemeni Parliament and worked tirelessly to improve the lives of women and marginalized communities.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Safiyah, a name that has embodied the qualities of purity, sincerity, and wisdom across various cultures and time periods.
People
Safiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Safiyah 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
Safiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Safiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 759 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Safiyah 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 451,587 US residents.
Is Safiyah a common name?
We classify Safiyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 769 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Safiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Safiyah was 2023, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Safiyah is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Safiyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 569 people with the name Safiyah, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,829 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 Safiyah 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 Safiyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Safiyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 570 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Safiyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safiyah is Black at 45.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.2%) and White (13.9%). 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 Safiyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Safiyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.3% (258 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 Safiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Safiyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Safiyah 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 Safiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Safiyah 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 Safiyah 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 the name Safiyah?
See how many people share the name Safiyah on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.