Khalifa
Of Arabic origin, representing a successor or deputy.
Name Census estimates that about 357 living Americans carry the first name Khalifa. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Khalifa today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khalifa births was 2018 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khalifa. 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 Khalifa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
357
~ 1 in 960,096 Americans
Peak year
2018
31 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,731
Tracked since 1986
Census
Khalifa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 410 people with the first name Khalifa, which placed it at #23,765 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
#23,765
National first-name rank
People counted
410
410 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
55.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khalifa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khalifa is Black at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (27.1%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Khalifa 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 Khalifa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American55.9% · 229
- White27.1% · 111
- Two or more races6.6% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Khalifa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khalifa from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Khalifa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khalifa 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 Khalifa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khalifas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Khalifa
The name Khalifa originated from the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "Khalifa" meaning "successor" or "deputy." The name has been in use since ancient times in the Middle East and among Muslim communities.
Khalifa was a title given to the successors of the Prophet Muhammad, who led the Muslim community after his death. The first four caliphs, known as the Rashidun Caliphs, were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, who ruled from 632 to 661 CE.
The name Khalifa is mentioned in several Islamic texts and scriptures, including the Quran and the Hadith, which are the primary sources of Islamic teachings. It is associated with leadership, authority, and the continuation of the Prophet's legacy.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Khalifa can be found in the historical accounts of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled from 750 to 1258 CE. Several Abbasid caliphs bore the name Khalifa, such as Al-Mu'tazz Billah (838-869 CE) and Al-Muktafi Billah (867-869 CE).
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Khalifa. One of the most famous was Khalifa ibn Khayyat, an Arab historian who lived in the 9th century CE and wrote an influential work on the history of Islam.
Another notable figure was Khalifa al-Nahlawi, a 12th-century Andalusian poet and scholar who made significant contributions to Arabic literature and culture.
In the modern era, one of the most well-known individuals with the name Khalifa was Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former president of the United Arab Emirates, who ruled from 2004 until his death in 2022.
Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan military officer and the current commander of the Libyan National Army, is another prominent figure with this name.
Khalifa Sall, a Senegalese politician and former mayor of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is another notable example of someone bearing the name Khalifa.
People
Khalifa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khalifa 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
Khalifa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khalifa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 357 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khalifa 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 960,096 US residents.
Is Khalifa a common name?
We classify Khalifa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 360 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khalifa most popular?
The single biggest year for Khalifa was 2018, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khalifa is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khalifa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 410 people with the name Khalifa, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,765 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 Khalifa 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 Khalifa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khalifa leans strongly male. 343 people counted with this name were male (84.5%), compared with 63 female bearers (15.5%). 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 Khalifa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khalifa is Black at 55.9%. The next largest groups are White (27.1%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Khalifa most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khalifa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.9% (229 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 Khalifa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khalifa a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Khalifa 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 Khalifa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khalifa 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 Khalifa 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 common is the name Khalifa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.