Safiya
Safiya was given to 168 girls in 2025, #1,333 among girls’ names; 2,831 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,800 Americans named Safiya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 5 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Safiya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Safiya mean?
Wiktionary, Swahili section
Safiya is “a female given name from Arabic”
Borrowed from Arabic صَفِيَّة (ṣafiyya).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Swahili section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Safiya?
#1,333 among girls’ names, 2025
Safiya rose from #2,642 in 2015 to #1,333 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.04 to 0.10 per 1,000.
168 babies in 2025, the peak
Safiya peaked in 2025, when 168 girls were given it, #1,333 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 162 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 168 | #1,333 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 162 | #1,393 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 157 | #1,428 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 147 | #1,487 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 152 | #1,423 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 103 | #1,880 | 0.06 |
| 2019 | 105 | #1,912 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 85 | #2,204 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 94 | #2,085 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 88 | #2,204 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 68 | #2,642 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 74 | #2,464 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 72 | #2,502 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 63 | #2,797 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 73 | #2,506 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 74 | #2,512 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 71 | #2,612 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 66 | #2,769 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 68 | #2,708 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 55 | #3,080 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 57 | #2,896 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 50 | #3,114 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 41 | #3,512 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 35 | #3,788 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 37 | #3,618 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 37 | #3,576 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 21 | #5,171 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 34 | #3,550 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 25 | #4,343 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 20 | #5,018 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 26 | #4,074 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 22 | #4,653 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 22 | #4,634 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 27 | #3,938 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 22 | #4,607 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 23 | #4,342 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 36 | #3,025 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 27 | #3,557 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 26 | #3,493 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 28 | #3,255 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 22 | #3,814 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 26 | #3,305 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 18 | #4,241 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 22 | #3,733 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 38 | #2,522 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,817 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 21 | #3,749 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 29 | #2,847 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 30 | #2,762 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,543 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,540 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 10 | #5,669 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,460 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Safiya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Safiya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Safiya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Safiya, and how old are they?
2,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,831 Americans ever recorded as Safiya. The median Safiya alive today is 13 years old; half are between 5 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 2,230 people named Safiya (2,222 women and girls, 8 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,944 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 137 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 394 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 799 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,470 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Safiya born?
The states with the most babies named Safiya are New York, Pennsylvania and California, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 34 | #502 | 3.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 21 | #511 | 0.7× |
| California | 20 | #1,269 | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 13 | #741 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,591 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,247 | 0.6× |
| Virginia | 7 | #1,021 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,106 | 0.4× |
| Minnesota | 5 | #975 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,322 | 0.4× |
Where Safiya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Safiya is most over-represented in New York: since 1973 it was given 3.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Safiya with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 9,760 babies since 1880, Safiya is the second most given (29% of them). In 2025 it was given to 168 of their 605 babies (28%), again the second most given.
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 Safiya
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 Safiya and names like it
- Compare Safiya and SafaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSafiya peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Safiya since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Safiya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Safiya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Safiya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.