Faris
Masculine · “horseman”
Faris is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,225 boys against 20 girls since 1880.
Faris is the Arabic word for a horseman — and, by the same logic that turned the French chevalier into a knight, for a knight. It is two clean syllables, spelled the way an English reader will read it, and it has been carried by Muslim families from the Gulf to Bosnia to Malaysia. In the United States it has been on record across generations without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Faris?
Faris first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Faris alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 3,000 people named Faris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Faris most popular?
Faris peaked in 2025, reaching #1297 nationally. Today it ranks #1297, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Arabic faras (horse) to Faris
The story of Faris
Faris comes from Arabic fāris, a rider, built on the root that gives faras, "horse". In classical Arabic writing the fāris is the mounted warrior, and the whole medieval discipline of horsemanship and martial conduct went under the name furūsiyya, so the word carries the same chivalric color that "knight" does in English. As Islam spread, the name traveled with it: it is at home in Arabic-speaking countries, well established among Bosnian Muslims in the Balkans, and common in Malaysia and Indonesia. Its American footprint sits where those communities settled, with Texas, New York and California leading.
Meaning
horseman, knight
From the Arabic root behind faras, "horse". The same spelling in Arabic, فارس, also names Fars — the Persian heartland — but as a personal name the horseman reading is the accepted one.
How the name formed
- Arabic farashorse
- Arabic fārishorseman, knight
- فارس
- Faris
Related forms: فارس · Fares · Faris · Faris · Faris · فارس / Faris
Pronouncing Faris
FAH-riss
Stress on the first syllable, with a broad first vowel. Many American speakers say FAIR-iss instead, and Arabic-speaking families often lengthen it slightly to FAA-riss. Both are the same name.
Nicknames for Faris
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 2025150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1297reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +57.9%150 in 2025, from 95
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Faris in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- فارس in Arabic — transliteration
- Fares in Levantine and Egyptian Arabic — spelling variant
- Faris in Bosnian — same name
- Faris in Malay and Indonesian — same name
- Faris in Turkish — same name
- فارس / Faris in Urdu — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California.
Fariss among us
people named Faris are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,387 born in 2025 was named Faris
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Faris
- #1297
- Faris on the 2025 chart
- #756
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Faris went to 150 boys in 2025, but Farris, Faaris and Fariz are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 172, which makes it the 756th most-given boys’ name of the year — 541 places above the chart.
- Faris150
- Farris11
- Faaris6
- Fariz5
About 1 boy in 9,931 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,387 for Faris itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Caroll test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Faris's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Caroll climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Caroll's path sketches the road Faris is walking now.
Faris sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Faris is headed
Faris should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Faris beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Faris in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled phonetically for English readers — five letters, no silent parts, no guessing.
- Works unchanged in Arabic, Bosnian, Turkish, Malay and Indonesian, which matters in a family that crosses languages.
- A documented word with a clear meaning behind it, not a modern coinage.
- Short enough to need no nickname, but takes Fari or Ari easily if one is wanted.
- It sits very close to Ferris and Farris in American ears and eyes, so expect the occasional correction — and, from some people, a Ferris wheel joke.
- Stress placement wanders: FAH-riss, FAIR-iss, and sometimes fah-REES. Deciding early which one your family uses saves a lot of small repairs later.
- A child named Faris will most likely be the only one in the school, which cuts both ways: no last-initial required, but also a name that gets spelled aloud fairly often.
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What they receive
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Faris
Masculine · #1297 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fariss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Faris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Faris?
- Faris is the most-used spelling in US records — 150 of the 172 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Farris, Faaris and Fariz.
- How popular is the name Faris in 2025?
- Faris ranks #1297 among US boy names in 2025, with 150 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Faris?
- About 1 in every 11,387 US boys born in 2025 was named Faris — 150 in all.
- Will my child share the name Faris with classmates?
- Faris will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Faris
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kallen#1297 · Cormac#1297 · Knowledge#1297 · Kaizer#1297 · Kolsen#1297 · Cartier#1297 · Harris#1297 · Asiah#1290
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Faris? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Faris and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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