Saffiya
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- sa-FEE-ya
- Origin
- Arabic
- UK rank, 2025
- #3,776 for girls
Saffiya is a girls' name of Arabic origin, meaning “pure, chosen”. In 2025 it ranked 3,776th for girls in the UK (6 babies).
What does Saffiya mean?
Arabic: spelling of Safiya, itself a spelling of Safiyya
“pure, chosen”
A spelling of Safiyya; Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib was the Prophet Muhammad's aunt.
Meaning borrowed from Safiya.
Is Saffiya a girl's or a boy's name?
Saffiya is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 6 girls in the UK. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Saffiya in the UK?
- Rank in 2025
- #3,776among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 6about 1 in 46,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Steadydown 9% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1%chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 6 girls in the UK were named Saffiya, making it the 3,776th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 5,734th. Its busiest year was 2013, with 14 girls.
Half of all the girls named Saffiya in the UK since 1996 were born between 2008 and 2018, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 274 girls in the UK were given Saffiya or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #213, up from #3,776 for this spelling alone.
Among girls in 2025, it was 3,704th in England and Wales.
Saffiya in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #3,776 |
| 2024 | 8 | #3,076 |
| 2023 | 6 | #3,766 |
| 2022 | 10 | #2,615 |
| 2021 | 11 | #2,478 |
| 2020 | 3 | #5,734 |
| 2019 | 10 | #2,590 |
| 2018 | 9 | #2,825 |
| 2017 | 11 | #2,485 |
| 2016 | 9 | #2,893 |
| 2015 | 10 | #2,629 |
| 2014 | 11 | #2,462 |
| 2013 | 14 | #2,061 |
| 2012 | 13 | #2,210 |
| 2011 | 12 | #2,265 |
| 2010 | 7 | #3,308 |
| 2009 | 13 | #2,037 |
| 2008 | 10 | #2,454 |
| 2007 | 8 | #2,790 |
| 2006 | 6 | #3,280 |
| 2005 | 6 | #3,133 |
| 2004 | 8 | #2,406 |
| 2003 | 3 | #4,560 |
| 2002 | 4 | #3,556 |
| 2001 | 4 | #3,427 |
| 2000 | 4 | #3,399 |
| 1999 | 5 | #2,912 |
| 1998 | 0 | – |
| 1997 | 0 | – |
| 1996 | 3 | #3,935 |
Names like Saffiya
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Safa Zainab Aaliyah Sumayyah Safaa Hafsa Abeeha Hiba Nusaybah Ruqayyah Amira Khadija
Other spellings of Saffiya
Names related to Saffiya
More Arabic names
Muhammad Layla Mohammed Lyla Mohammad Zara Amir Fatima Ali Yahya Zayn Aisha Omar Zahra Hamza Kairo
Sources
Figures from Baby names in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics), Babies' first names (National Records of Scotland) and Baby names (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Saffiya: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/saffiya, updated 20 October 2026.