Lateefah
Feminine · “Gentle”
Lateefah is the Arabic Latifa, 'gentle, kind, subtle', a name American families took up in the later twentieth century. The same root gave Sufi mystics their word for the subtle centers of the soul.
How old is the name Lateefah?
Lateefah first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Lateefah alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 600 people named Lateefah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lateefah most popular?
Lateefah peaked in 1979, reaching #1753 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From latifa to Lateefah
The story of Lateefah
In Sufi teaching the lataif, plural of latifa, are subtle points of the inner self, each associated with a place in the body and a color, which the seeker learns to awaken one by one. In 1960 the Egyptian writer Latifa al-Zayyat published The Open Door, about a young woman in Cairo finding her own voice amid the upheavals of the 1940s and 1950s; it became a classic of Arabic fiction and a film. Lateefah, with its long ee and final h, is an American spelling of the name.
Meaning
Gentle, kind, subtle
From Arabic latifa, from the root l-t-f, 'to be gentle, fine, subtle'.
How the name formed
- latifa
- Latifa
- Lateefah
Related forms: Latifa · Latife · Latifah
Pronouncing Lateefah
luh-TEE-fuh
Three syllables with the stress on the second.
Nicknames for Lateefah
Limited
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 197962 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1753reached in 1979
- Change vs 1998
- −37.5%5 in 2006, from 8
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.
Lateefah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Latifa in Arabic — transliteration
- Latife in Turkish — same name
- Latifah in English — spelling variant
Lateefahs among us
people named Lateefah are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lateefah sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A warm, settled meaning.
- Used across the Arabic-speaking and Muslim world.
- Distinct on paper.
- People will write Latifah, the spelling made famous by a performer.
- The final h is silent, which some will not expect.
- It will need spelling out.
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Lateefah
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Frequently asked
- How many Lateefahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Lateefah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lateefah in 2025?
- Lateefah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lateefah with classmates?
- Lateefah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lateefah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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