girl's name
Safa
SAF-a
- Origin Arabic
- Gender Girl
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (E&W)
- Births on record 14,738
England and Wales
#112
2025 births
Safa is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "purity" or "clarity." It is also the name of a hill in Mecca central to the rites of the Hajj pilgrimage.
- Safa is a name of Arabic origin.
- Peaked in England and Wales in 2025, when 425 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in England and Wales.
- Today about 1 in 1,240 babies in England and Wales is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1996.
Safa over time
Births per decade in England and Wales, 1990s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1990s | 156 |
| 2000s | 1,668 |
| 2010s | 2,393 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,687 |
What Safa means
Safa means purity, clearness or serenity — the quality of something unclouded. The root carries the sense of a liquid running clear rather than moral purity alone.
Where Safa comes from
Safa comes from the Arabic ṣafā, to be clear or pure, from the root ṣ-f-w, which also gives ṣafī, pure or chosen. Al-Safa is one of the two small hills in Mecca, beside Al-Marwah, between which pilgrims walk seven times during the Hajj and Umrah in remembrance of Hagar's search for water for her son Ishmael. The name therefore carries both an everyday adjective and a specific sacred place, which is unusual — most place-derived names lose the ordinary meaning.
Safa in use
Our data shows Safa peaking in 2025 and still rising, at 112 in England and Wales against 1,005 in the United States. That gap of nearly nine hundred places is among the widest in our records, and reflects Britain's much larger established South Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
How popular is Safa?
In 2025, Safa was given to 425 babies in England and Wales, ranking #112 that year. It is well established in England and Wales.
Where Safa is used
Figures for England and Wales withhold any name given to fewer than three babies in a year, so a gap means the name fell below that floor rather than went unused. Data & sources.
How Safa is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Safâ | Safâ is a rare spelling of Safa, written with a circumflex and recorded about 160 times, mostly in France. | 160 |
Names that peaked alongside Safa
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Safa also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Safa over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Safa in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Safa
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Safa — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Safa
What does the name Safa mean?
Safa means "purity" or "clarity," from the Arabic ṣafā, to be clear.
What is Safa in Mecca?
Al-Safa is one of two hills pilgrims walk between seven times during Hajj and Umrah, commemorating Hagar's search for water.
Is Safa used outside Arabic-speaking countries?
Widely. Our data places it at 112 in England and Wales, far ahead of its United States ranking.
How popular is the name Safa?
In 2025, Safa was given to 425 babies in England and Wales, ranking #112 that year. It is well established in England and Wales.
Is Safa a girl's or a boy's name?
Safa is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
When was Safa most popular?
Safa peaked in 2025, when 425 babies were given the name. It has been rising over the past decade.
Is Safa a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Safa currently ranks #112 in England and Wales. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.