Latifah
Feminine · “gentle”
Latif is one of the words used of God in Islamic tradition, and it is a gentler one than most — it means subtle, kind, gracious, the quality of dealing lightly with someone. The feminine is Latifa. The name entered American use in the 1970s and got a very large push at the end of the 1980s from a rapper who called herself a queen and used it as her whole name.
How old is the name Latifah?
Latifah first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Latifah alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 1,400 people named Latifah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Latifah most popular?
Latifah peaked in 1990, reaching #701 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,507 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From latif to Latifah
The story of Latifah
Arabic names entered American use in large numbers from the 1960s, chosen deliberately by African American families as an act of connection and of refusal at once, and Latifah belongs to that movement. What lifted it further was a single career: a performer from New Jersey released a debut record at the end of the 1980s under this name, and the American record shows it rising sharply in the years that followed. The h at the end is the standard English way of marking the Arabic feminine ending, and it is silent.
Meaning
gentle, kind, subtle
From the Arabic latif, whose range covers gentle, kind, delicate and fine. Al-Latif is counted among the names of God in Islamic tradition, where the sense is of a kindness that works quietly and without force. The feminine latifa is an ordinary adjective as well as a name.
How the name formed
- latif
- Latifa
- Latifah
Related forms: Latifa · Latife · Latifa · Latifeh
Pronouncing Latifah
lah-TEE-fah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the second vowel long. The final h is silent in English and marks the Arabic feminine ending; Arabic gives it a light breath that English does not attempt.
Nicknames for Latifah
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 1990300 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #701reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
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.
Latifah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Latifa in Arabic — same name
- Latife in Turkish — same name
- Latifa in Urdu — same name
- Latifeh in Persian — same name
Latifahs among us
people named Latifah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Latifah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Latifah
- #13208
- Latifah on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Latifah went to 6 girls in 2025, but Latifa 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 — 12,267 places above the chart.
- Latifa13
- Latifah6
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Latifah 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 Eloisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Latifah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eloisa climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eloisa's path sketches the road Latifah is walking now.
Latifah 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
Latifah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Latifah 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 unusually warm and specific — a kindness that works quietly.
- It is used across the Arabic-speaking world and recognized far beyond it.
- Three open syllables that survive any accent intact.
- The word behind it is a divine attribute, which gives it real standing.
- The name is closely associated with one performer, and adults will hear her first.
- Latifa and Lateefah are both in use, so the spelling has to be given.
- The final h is silent and will be dropped by people writing quickly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Latifah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Latifah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Latifah
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Latifahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Latifah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Latifah?
- Latifah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Latifa is the more common one — 13 births in 2025 against 6 for Latifah.
- How popular is the name Latifah in 2025?
- Latifah ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Latifah?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Latifah — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Latifah with classmates?
- Latifah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Latifah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Latifah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Latifah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle