Hafsah
Feminine · “young lioness”
Hafsa bint Umar kept the only complete written copy of the Qur'an in her house — the text every later copy descends from.
How old is the name Hafsah?
Hafsah first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Hafsah is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Hafsah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hafsah most popular?
Hafsah peaked in 2024, reaching #3575 nationally. Today it ranks #4661, 1,086 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From hafs to Hafsah
The story of Hafsah
After the first compilation, the written Qur'an was entrusted to Hafsa, a wife of Muhammad and daughter of the caliph Umar, and it stayed in her keeping until Uthman used it to produce the standard text. She was literate, which was uncommon, and the accounts describe her as strong-minded. The name is used across the Muslim world and Hafsah is one of several English spellings.
Meaning
young lioness
From Arabic hafs, a lion cub or young lion; hafsa is the feminine. The word belongs to the older Arabic vocabulary of animals rather than to abstract virtue, which was common in pre-Islamic naming.
How the name formed
- hafs
- Hafsah
Related forms: Hafsa · Hafsa · Hafsah
Pronouncing Hafsah
HAF-sah
Two syllables, first stressed; the h is fully sounded in Arabic.
Nicknames for Hafsah
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
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 202443 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3575reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −32.6%29 in 2025, from 43
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.
Hafsah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hafsa in Arabic — spelling variant
- Hafsa in Turkish — same name
- Hafsah in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Hafsahs among us
people named Hafsah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was named Hafsah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hafsah
- #4661
- Hafsah on the 2025 chart
- #783
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hafsah went to 29 girls in 2025, but Hafsa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 177, which makes it the 783rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,878 places above the chart.
- Hafsa148
- Hafsah29
About 1 girl in 9,081 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 55,423 for Hafsah 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 Samar test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hafsah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Samar climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Samar's path sketches the road Hafsah is walking now.
Hafsah 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 Hafsah is headed
Hafsah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 28% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Hafsah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hafsah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning from the older animal vocabulary of Arabic naming.
- A genuinely consequential and literate historical bearer.
- Six letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Hafsah and Hafsa are both in use and neither is dominant in English.
- The fs cluster is awkward in the middle for English speakers.
- It is unfamiliar outside Muslim communities in America.
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What they receive
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Hafsah
Feminine · #4661 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hafsahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Hafsah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hafsah?
- Hafsah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Hafsa is the more common one — 148 births in 2025 against 29 for Hafsah.
- How popular is the name Hafsah in 2025?
- Hafsah ranks #4661 among US girl names in 2025, with 29 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hafsah?
- About 1 in every 55,423 US girls born in 2025 was named Hafsah — 29 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hafsah with classmates?
- Hafsah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hafsah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ellenor#4661 · Roselie#4661 · Marni#4661 · Menucha#4661 · Infinity#4661 · Lilya#4661 · Railyn#4661 · Zada#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hafsah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hafsah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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