Arif
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "knowledgeable" or "wise".
Name Census estimates that about 684 living Americans carry the first name Arif. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Arif today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arif births was 2007 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arif. 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 Arif with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
684
~ 1 in 501,103 Americans
Peak year
2007
21 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,903
Tracked since 1968
Census
Arif in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,388 people with the first name Arif, which placed it at #6,652 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
#6,652
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,388 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
65.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arif
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arif is Asian/Pacific Islander at 65.6%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Arif 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 Arif at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander65.6% · 1,567
- White21.3% · 509
- Black or African American6.4% · 154
- Two or more races3.8% · 90
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 55
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 13
Popularity
Arif: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arif from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 159 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Arif remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arif 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 Arif during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arifs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Arif
The name Arif is of Arabic origin and is derived from the Arabic word 'arafa', which means 'to know' or 'to recognize'. It is a masculine name that has been in use since ancient times in the Arab world and some parts of the Middle East.
The name Arif has a strong connection to Islamic culture and history. In Arabic literature, the word 'arif' is often used to refer to a person who has deep spiritual knowledge or a mystic. The name is mentioned in several Islamic texts and scriptures, including the Quran and the Hadith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arif can be found in the writings of the famous Sufi poet and philosopher, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273 AD). Rumi's works are filled with references to the concept of 'arif', and he often used it to describe those who had attained a higher level of spiritual understanding.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Arif. One of the most renowned is Arif Qazvini (1263-1325 AD), a Persian philosopher and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy and wrote several influential works on the subject.
Another prominent figure with the name Arif is Arif Wiqar Ali (1923-1997), a Pakistani writer and poet who is considered one of the most influential figures in Urdu literature. His works, which often explored themes of love, spirituality, and social issues, earned him numerous awards and accolades.
In the field of music, Arif Mardin (1932-2006) was a Turkish-American record producer and arranger who worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, and Norah Jones. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Another notable figure with the name Arif is Arif Dirlik (1940-2021), a Turkish-American historian and sociologist who made significant contributions to the field of critical theory and postcolonial studies.
Finally, Arif Husain (1938-2021) was an Indian-American mathematician and computer scientist who made groundbreaking contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. He is best known for his work on the development of the first chess-playing computer program, which was a major milestone in the field of AI.
People
Arif + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arif 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
Arif: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arif?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 684 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arif 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 501,103 US residents.
Is Arif a common name?
We classify Arif as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 704 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arif most popular?
The single biggest year for Arif was 2007, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arif is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arif in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,388 people with the name Arif, or 0.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,652 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 Arif 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 Arif?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arif appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,389 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Arif?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arif is Asian/Pacific Islander at 65.6%. The next largest groups are White (21.3%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Arif most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Arif in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.6% (1,567 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 Arif in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arif a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arif in the SSA data are male. 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 Arif still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arif 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 Arif 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 have Arif as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.