Afia
Afia was given to 25 girls in 2025, #5,101 among girls’ names; 621 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Afia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Afia mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Afia is “a female given name from Arabic.”
Also “a female given name from Akan.”
From Arabic
From Akan
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Afia?
#5,101 among girls’ names, 2025
Afia rose from #5,656 in 2015 to #5,101 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 12.9 to 15.6 per million.
30 babies in 2024, the peak
Afia peaked in 2024, when 30 girls were given it, #4,559 among girls’ names. The 25 births of 2025 are 83% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25 | #5,101 | 15.6 |
| 2024 | 30 | #4,559 | 18.5 |
| 2023 | 20 | #5,965 | 12.5 |
| 2022 | 16 | #6,983 | 9.8 |
| 2021 | 17 | #6,693 | 10.4 |
| 2020 | 28 | #4,646 | 17.3 |
| 2019 | 21 | #5,796 | 12.5 |
| 2018 | 18 | #6,523 | 10.6 |
| 2017 | 24 | #5,342 | 13.9 |
| 2016 | 12 | #8,888 | 6.8 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 23 | #5,656 | 12.9 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,644 | 8.4 |
| 2013 | 17 | #7,037 | 9.7 |
| 2012 | 19 | #6,583 | 10.8 |
| 2011 | 15 | #7,786 | 8.5 |
| 2010 | 15 | #7,887 | 8.4 |
| 2009 | 20 | #6,550 | 10.9 |
| 2008 | 13 | #8,980 | 6.9 |
| 2007 | 27 | #5,230 | 14.0 |
| 2006 | 18 | #6,847 | 9.5 |
| 2005 | 16 | #7,144 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 20 | #5,971 | 10.9 |
| 2003 | 17 | #6,576 | 9.3 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,444 | 7.8 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,114 | 5.0 |
| 2000 | 12 | #8,029 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 9 | #9,487 | 5.1 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,134 | 4.5 |
| 1997 | 7 | #10,850 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 6 | #11,820 | 3.4 |
| 1995 | 5 | #13,416 | 2.8 |
| 1994 | 8 | #9,592 | 4.5 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,617 | 7.2 |
| 1992 | 5 | #13,331 | 2.7 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,171 | 2.7 |
| 1989 | 8 | #8,762 | 4.3 |
| 1986 | 7 | #8,529 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 5 | #10,431 | 3.0 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,241 | 3.5 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,061 | 4.4 |
| 1978 | 5 | #9,757 | 3.3 |
| 1977 | 5 | #9,659 | 3.3 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,161 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,486 | 5.5 |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,788 | 3.4 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,430 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,560 | 4.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Afia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Afia has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Afia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Afia, and how old are they?
An estimated 613 Americans named Afia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 7 and 25. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,062 people named Afia (1,055 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 486 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 1,691 babies since 1880, Afia is the most given (37% of them). In 2025 it was given to 25 of their 82 babies (30%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Afia
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Afia and names like it
- Compare Afia and AfiyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAfia peaked in 2024.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Afia since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Afia: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Afia.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Afia alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.