Latifa
Feminine · “Arabic latifa”
Islam counts ninety-nine names of God, and one of them is al-Latif, the Subtle, the Gentle, the one whose kindness is too fine to be seen working. Men do not take that name bare; they take Abd al-Latif, servant of the Subtle. Women take the feminine of the adjective directly, and that is Latifa.
How old is the name Latifa?
Latifa first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Latifa alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 800 people named Latifa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Latifa most popular?
Latifa peaked in 1980, reaching #2486 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 5,399 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From latif to Latifa
The story of Latifa
The divine names are used differently for men and for women, and the difference is a rule of Islamic naming rather than a matter of taste. A man is not called Rahman or Karim or Latif on their own, since those belong to God; he is called Abd al-Rahman, Abd al-Karim, Abd al-Latif, servant of the Merciful, the Generous, the Subtle, and the construction makes the relationship explicit. Feminine adjectives do not raise the same difficulty, so women's names take them plainly: Latifa, Karima, Jamila, Nadira. This means a very large share of Arabic women's names are simply adjectives, grammatically transparent and immediately understandable to any speaker, while men's names of the same root require a whole phrase. The American curve for Latifa peaks in 1980, which is a decade before Queen Latifah's first record and so cannot be attributed to her.
Meaning
Arabic latifa, gentle, subtle or kind
From the Arabic root l-t-f, associated with gentleness, fineness and subtlety. The masculine adjective latif is one of the ninety-nine names of God in Islamic tradition, usually translated as the Subtle or the Gracious. The feminine latifa is used as a personal name across the Arabic-speaking world and in Turkish, Persian and Urdu. Spellings in English include Latifa, Latifah and Lateefa.
How the name formed
- latif
- latifa
- Latifa
Related forms: Latifah · Latife · Latifeh
Pronouncing Latifa
lah-TEE-fah
Three syllables, stress on the second, with a long second vowel. The final h in the spelling Latifah is not a separate sound in English; it represents the Arabic feminine ending.
Nicknames for Latifa
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 199044 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2486reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- +8.3%13 in 2025, from 12
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.
Latifa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Latifah in Arabic — transliteration
- Latife in Turkish — same name
- Latifeh in Persian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Latifas among us
people named Latifa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Latifa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Latifa
- #7885
- Latifa on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Latifa went to 13 girls in 2025, but Latifah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,944 places above the chart.
- Latifa13
- Latifah6
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Latifa 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 Lezlee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Latifa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lezlee climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lezlee's path sketches the road Latifa is walking now.
Latifa 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
Latifa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Latifa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, positive and grammatically transparent in Arabic.
- It is used across a very wide region and several languages.
- The sound is easy for English speakers.
- Latifah with a final h is the more common American spelling.
- It is closely associated with one very famous bearer.
- The stress is on the middle syllable, which English speakers sometimes shift.
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What they receive
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Latifa
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Latifas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Latifa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Latifa?
- Latifa is the most-used spelling in US records — 13 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Latifah.
- How popular is the name Latifa in 2025?
- Latifa ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Latifa?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Latifa — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Latifa with classmates?
- Latifa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Latifa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Latifa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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