Jafar
Masculine · “stream”
Jafar peaks in American records in 1994, two years after a Disney film cast a character of the name as its villain. That is an unusual shape: names normally fall when they are attached to a villain, and this one rose.
How old is the name Jafar?
Jafar first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Jafar alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 700 people named Jafar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jafar most popular?
Jafar peaked in 1994, reaching #2347 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 4,456 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Where it comes from
From ja'far to Jafar
The story of Jafar
Ja'far al-Sadiq, who died in 765, is one of the most consequential figures in Islamic intellectual history: the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence is named for him and is the principal legal school of Twelver Shia Islam. The name is accordingly among the most respected in the Muslim world. Its American record is complicated by a 1992 animated film in which a sorcerer of the name is the antagonist, and by the general growth of Arabic naming in African American families over the same period; the two rise together, and the 1994 peak cannot be assigned to either alone. Both are part of what the number means.
Meaning
stream, rivulet, small river
Arabic Ja'far, a stream or small river. The name is borne by Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, cousin of the Prophet and brother of Ali, killed at Mu'ta in 629, and by Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam of Shia Islam and a major figure in Islamic law and thought. The apostrophe marks a genuine Arabic consonant that English spelling drops.
How the name formed
- ja'far
- Ja'far
- Jafar
Related forms: Ja'far · Jafar · Cafer · Jafar
Pronouncing Jafar
JAH-far
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The Arabic has a consonant between the syllables that English drops entirely, and the r is tapped.
Nicknames for Jafar
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 199433 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2347reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −45.5%12 in 2025, from 22
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.
Jafar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ja'far in Arabic — transliteration
- Jafar in Persian — same name
- Cafer in Turkish — same name
- Jafar in Urdu — same name
Jafars among us
people named Jafar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Jafar
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jafar
- #6803
- Jafar on the 2025 chart
- #911
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jafar went to 12 boys in 2025, but Jaffar is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 911th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,892 places above the chart.
- Jafar12
- Jaffar5
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 142,340 for Jafar 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 Deo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jafar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deo climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deo's path sketches the road Jafar is walking now.
Jafar 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
Jafar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jafar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Arabic meaning and two major historical figures behind it.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no spelling difficulty in English.
- Recognized across the Arab world, Iran, Turkey and South Asia.
- An animated film villain of the name is very widely known.
- The Arabic consonant this spelling drops is a real one.
- Jafar, Jaffar and Ja'far all circulate as transliterations.
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What they receive
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Jafar
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jafars 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 Jafar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jafar?
- Jafar is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 17 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jaffar.
- How popular is the name Jafar in 2025?
- Jafar ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jafar?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Jafar — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jafar with classmates?
- Jafar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jafar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jafar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jafar and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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