Saffiyah
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- sa-FEE-ya
- Origin
- Arabic
- UK rank, 2025
- #2,344 for girls
Saffiyah is a girls' name of Arabic origin, meaning “pure, chosen”. In 2025 it ranked 2,344th for girls in the UK (12 babies).
What does Saffiyah mean?
Arabic: spelling of Safiyyah
“pure, chosen”
A spelling of Safiyyah; Safiyya bint Huyayy was one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad.
Is Saffiyah a girl's or a boy's name?
Saffiyah is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 12 girls in the UK. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Saffiyah in the UK?
- Rank in 2025
- 2,344th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 12 about 1 in 23,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Steady down 20% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 12 girls in the UK were named Saffiyah, making it the 2,344th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 1,708th. Its busiest year was 2019, with 22 girls.
2025 had fewer girls named Saffiyah than any year since 2017.
Half of all the girls named Saffiyah in the UK since 1996 were born between 2010 and 2021, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 274 girls in the UK were given Saffiyah or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #213, up from #2,344 for this spelling alone.
Among girls in 2025, it was 2,276th in England and Wales.
Saffiyah in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #2,344 |
| 2024 | 19 | #1,662 |
| 2023 | 14 | #2,070 |
| 2022 | 16 | #1,873 |
| 2021 | 19 | #1,669 |
| 2020 | 18 | #1,708 |
| 2019 | 22 | #1,485 |
| 2018 | 16 | #1,904 |
| 2017 | 9 | #2,864 |
| 2016 | 20 | #1,653 |
| 2015 | 13 | #2,186 |
| 2014 | 12 | #2,320 |
| 2013 | 9 | #2,796 |
| 2012 | 13 | #2,210 |
| 2011 | 15 | #1,917 |
| 2010 | 14 | #2,004 |
| 2009 | 11 | #2,298 |
| 2008 | 6 | #3,589 |
| 2007 | 7 | #3,060 |
| 2006 | 8 | #2,657 |
| 2005 | 8 | #2,555 |
| 2004 | 6 | #2,957 |
| 2003 | 0 | – |
| 2002 | 0 | – |
| 2001 | 4 | #3,427 |
| 2000 | 7 | #2,304 |
| 1999 | 0 | – |
| 1998 | 0 | – |
| 1997 | 3 | #3,991 |
| 1996 | 3 | #3,935 |
Names like Saffiyah
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Safa, Aaliyah, Nusaybah, Zainab, Sumayyah, Aafiyah, Ruqayyah, Ayah, Abeeha, Safaa, Hafsa, Hiba
Other spellings of Saffiyah
Names related to Saffiyah
More Arabic names
Muhammad, Layla, Mohammed, Lyla, Mohammad, Zara, Amir, Amira, Fatima, Ali, Yahya, Zayn, Aisha, Omar, Zahra, Hamza
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, “Saffiyah: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/saffiyah, updated 20 October 2026.