Wasif
An Arabic masculine name meaning description or depiction of character.
Name Census estimates that about 132 living Americans carry the first name Wasif. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wasif today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wasif births was 2015 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wasif. 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 Wasif with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
132
~ 1 in 2,596,624 Americans
Peak year
2015
12 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2023 SSA rank
#14,064
Tracked since 1986
Census
Wasif in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 380 people with the first name Wasif, which placed it at #25,078 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
#25,078
National first-name rank
People counted
380
380 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
91.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wasif
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wasif is Asian/Pacific Islander at 91.6%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Two or More Races (1.1%). 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 Wasif 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 Wasif at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander91.6% · 348
- White6.3% · 24
- Two or more races1.1% · 4
- Black or African American0.5% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Wasif: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wasif from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 53 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wasif 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 Wasif during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wasif
The name Wasif has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "wasf," which means "description" or "attribute." The name likely emerged during the early centuries of the Islamic era, around the 7th or 8th century AD.
Wasif is believed to have been a relatively uncommon name in the early days of Islam, but it gained popularity over time. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Wasif al-Khazraj, a prominent poet and scholar who lived in the 9th century AD in modern-day Iraq.
In the 10th century, Wasif ibn Ata al-Naysaburi, a renowned Shafi'i scholar and author, gained recognition for his contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and literature. He was born in Nishapur, a city in what is now northeastern Iran.
During the 11th century, Wasif al-Qayruwani, a philosopher and mathematician from Kairouan (present-day Tunisia), made significant contributions to the field of optics and wrote several treatises on the subject.
In the 12th century, Wasif ibn Ali al-Tawil, a respected poet and calligrapher from Baghdad, Iraq, gained fame for his mastery of the Arabic language and his exquisite calligraphic works.
Another notable figure with the name Wasif was Wasif Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and diplomat who lived in the 19th century. He served as the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) of the Ottoman Empire from 1857 to 1858 and played a crucial role in the Tanzimat reforms, which aimed to modernize the Ottoman state.
While the name Wasif has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has been adopted and used by people of various backgrounds and ethnicities throughout history. The name's meaning and association with description or attributes have endured, making it a unique and meaningful choice for many parents.
People
Wasif + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wasif as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Wasif: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wasif?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 132 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wasif 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 2,596,624 US residents.
Is Wasif a common name?
We classify Wasif as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 134 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wasif most popular?
The single biggest year for Wasif was 2015, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wasif is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wasif in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 380 people with the name Wasif, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,078 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 Wasif 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 Wasif?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wasif appears almost entirely male. Of the 377 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Wasif?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wasif is Asian/Pacific Islander at 91.6%. The next largest groups are White (6.3%) and Two or More Races (1.1%). 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 Wasif most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Wasif in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.6% (348 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 Wasif in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wasif a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wasif 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 Wasif still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wasif 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 Wasif 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 Wasif?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.