Afiya
An Arabic feminine name signifying good health or wellness.
Name Census estimates that about 319 living Americans carry the first name Afiya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Afiya today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Afiya births was 2023 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Afiya. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Afiya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
319
~ 1 in 1,074,465 Americans
Peak year
2023
19 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,537
Tracked since 1973
Census
Afiya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 378 people with the first name Afiya, which placed it at #25,170 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,170
National first-name rank
People counted
378
378 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Afiya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Afiya is Black at 70.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.6%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Afiya described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Afiya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.4% · 266
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.6% · 78
- Two or more races3.4% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 11
- White1.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 4
Popularity
Afiya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Afiya from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 70 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Afiya by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Afiya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Afiyas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Afiya
The name Afiya is of Arabic origin and has its roots in the Arabic word "afiya," which means good health, well-being, or prosperity. It is a feminine name that has been in use for centuries in the Arab world and other regions influenced by Arabic culture and language.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Afiya can be traced back to medieval Islamic texts and historical records. One notable example is the 11th-century scholar and mystic, Afiya al-Baghdadiyya, who was renowned for her contributions to the field of Islamic jurisprudence and Sufism.
In the 13th century, the name Afiya was also borne by a prominent female poet and scholar from Seville, Spain, known as Afiya bint al-Mu'taman. Her poetry and literary works were widely celebrated during her lifetime and continue to be studied and admired by scholars of Arabic literature.
Moving forward in time, the name Afiya gained further recognition in the 19th century with the birth of Afiya Kaddour, an Algerian activist and pioneering figure in the women's rights movement in North Africa. Her efforts to promote education and emancipation for women in Algeria have left a lasting impact on the region.
Another notable figure with the name Afiya was Afiya Shihab, an Egyptian writer and journalist who lived in the early 20th century. Her work focused on social and political issues, and she was a prominent voice in the Arabic literary scene of her time.
In more recent history, the name Afiya has been associated with Afiya Aza, a Somali-American social entrepreneur and activist. Born in 1985, she has dedicated her efforts to empowering women and promoting economic development in Somalia and other parts of Africa.
While these are just a few examples, the name Afiya has been borne by many influential figures throughout history, spanning various fields such as literature, scholarship, activism, and the arts. Its roots in Arabic and its meaning of good health and well-being have contributed to its enduring popularity across different cultures and regions influenced by the Arabic language and traditions.
People
Afiya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Afiya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Afiya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Afiya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 319 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Afiya going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,074,465 US residents.
Is Afiya a common name?
We classify Afiya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 331 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Afiya most popular?
The single biggest year for Afiya was 2023, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Afiya is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Afiya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 378 people with the name Afiya, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,170 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Afiya in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Afiya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Afiya appears almost entirely female. Of the 377 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Afiya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Afiya is Black at 70.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.6%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Afiya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Afiya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.4% (266 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Afiya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Afiya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Afiya in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Afiya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Afiya in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Afiya can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Afiya?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.