Kafi
A masculine Arabic name meaning "sufficient" or "enough".
Name Census estimates that about 95 living Americans carry the first name Kafi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kafi today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kafi births was 1972 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kafi. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kafi. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
95
~ 1 in 3,607,940 Americans
Peak year
1972
24 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1979 SSA rank
#9,477
Tracked since 1971
Census
Kafi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 205 people with the first name Kafi, which placed it at #37,817 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
#37,817
National first-name rank
People counted
205
205 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kafi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kafi is Black at 84.4%. The next largest groups are White (7.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Kafi 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 Kafi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.4% · 173
- White7.3% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 6
- Two or more races2.9% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 5
Popularity
Kafi: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Kafi 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 Kafi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 0 | 106 | 106 |
Geography
Where Kafis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kafi
The name Kafi has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the root word "kaf," which means "palm of the hand." The name is believed to have emerged during the early days of Islam, around the 7th century CE.
Kafi was a relatively common name in the Middle East and North Africa during the medieval period. It is mentioned in several historical texts and records from that time, although its exact meaning and significance are not entirely clear. Some scholars suggest that it may have been used as a nickname or a descriptive term before becoming an established given name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kafi was a 9th-century Islamic scholar and hadith collector, Kafi ibn Abi Bakr al-Marwazi. He was born in the city of Merv (present-day Turkmenistan) and is known for his contributions to the study of Islamic jurisprudence and hadith literature.
Another notable figure with the name Kafi was a 13th-century Persian poet and mystic, Kafi al-Din al-Khwarazmi. He was born in Khwarazm (present-day Uzbekistan) and is best known for his poetic works, which often explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human condition.
In the 14th century, there was a prominent Islamic scholar and jurist from Baghdad named Kafi al-Din al-Baghdadi. He was renowned for his expertise in Islamic law and is credited with writing several influential works on the subject.
During the Ottoman Empire, a 16th-century Ottoman statesman and diplomat named Kafi Efendi held important positions in the imperial court. He served as the chief interpreter and advisor to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and played a significant role in diplomatic relations with European powers.
In more recent times, one of the most well-known individuals with the name Kafi was Kafi Anidjar, a 20th-century Algerian novelist and playwright. Born in 1925, he wrote extensively about the struggle for Algerian independence and the social and political issues facing his country.
Throughout its history, the name Kafi has been associated with various scholarly, literary, and religious figures within the Islamic world. While its precise origins and meanings may have evolved over time, it has remained a name with deep cultural and linguistic roots in the Arabic-speaking regions.
People
Kafi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kafi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kafi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kafi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 95 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kafi 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 3,607,940 US residents.
Is Kafi a common name?
We classify Kafi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 106 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kafi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kafi was 1972, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kafi is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kafi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 205 people with the name Kafi, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,817 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 Kafi 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 Kafi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kafi leans strongly female. 174 people counted with this name were female (83.7%), compared with 34 male bearers (16.3%). 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 Kafi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kafi is Black at 84.4%. The next largest groups are White (7.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Kafi most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kafi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.4% (173 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 Kafi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kafi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kafi 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 Kafi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kafi 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 Kafi 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 are called Kafi?
You can see how many people share the name Kafi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.