Shariff
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "noble" or "noble one".
Name Census estimates that about 549 living Americans carry the first name Shariff. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shariff today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shariff births was 1983 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shariff. 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 Shariff with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
549
~ 1 in 624,325 Americans
Peak year
1983
30 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2015 SSA rank
#10,446
Tracked since 1970
Census
Shariff in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 510 people with the first name Shariff, which placed it at #20,297 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
#20,297
National first-name rank
People counted
510
510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
73.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shariff
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shariff is Black at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and White (8.8%). 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 Shariff 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 Shariff at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American73.5% · 375
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 47
- White8.8% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 26
- Two or more races2.5% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
Popularity
Shariff: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shariff from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 183 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shariff 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 Shariff during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shariffs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Shariff, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 76 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shariff
The name Shariff is believed to have its origins in Arabic, deriving from the word "sharif" which means "noble" or "distinguished." It has been in use since ancient times in various parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
The earliest recorded use of the name Shariff can be traced back to the 7th century AD, during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. It was often used as a honorific title for those who claimed direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad, through his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali.
One of the earliest and most notable figures to bear the name Shariff was Sharif Ibn al-Husayn (1854-1924), who was the Emir of Mecca and the leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. His efforts played a crucial role in the establishment of modern-day Saudi Arabia.
In the Indian subcontinent, the name Shariff gained popularity among Muslim communities, particularly in regions with a strong Sufi tradition. One of the most famous Sufis to bear the name was Shariff Baba (1615-1689), a revered Sufi saint from present-day Maharashtra, India, who is credited with spreading the teachings of Islam in the region.
Another prominent figure in history with the name Shariff was Shariff Hussein bin Ali (1895-1966), who served as the King of the Hejaz region in present-day Saudi Arabia from 1916 to 1924. He was a key ally of the British during World War I and played a significant role in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
In more recent times, the name Shariff has been borne by several notable individuals, including Shariff Aguak (1938-2020), a Filipino politician and lawyer who served as a Senator in the Philippine Senate from 1987 to 1992, and Shariff Kabunsuan (1947-2018), a Filipino author and journalist who was known for his works on the Moro people of the southern Philippines.
People
Shariff + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shariff as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shariff: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shariff?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 549 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shariff 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 624,325 US residents.
Is Shariff a common name?
We classify Shariff as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 572 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shariff most popular?
The single biggest year for Shariff was 1983, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shariff is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shariff in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 510 people with the name Shariff, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,297 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 Shariff 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 Shariff?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shariff leans strongly male. 480 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 26 female bearers (5.1%). 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 Shariff?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shariff is Black at 73.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and White (8.8%). 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 Shariff most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shariff in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.5% (375 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 Shariff in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shariff a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shariff 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 Shariff still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shariff 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 Shariff 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 Shariff?
You can see how many Americans are named Shariff on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.