Find out how popular the last name Afzal is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Afzal.

Afzal, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Afzal surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Afzal in America

Afzal is the 17319th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Afzal surname appeared 1,634 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Afzal.

We can also compare 2010 data for Afzal to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Afzal

The surname Afzal originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the Middle East. It first appeared around the 7th century CE during the Islamic Golden Age, when Arabic was the dominant language of the region.

Afzal is derived from the Arabic word 'afzal', which means 'superior', 'better', or 'most excellent'. It was likely initially used as an honorific title or a descriptive surname to denote someone of high esteem or exceptional qualities.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Afzal can be found in the writings of Al-Jahiz, a prominent Arab prose writer and Islamic scholar who lived in the 9th century CE. He mentioned an individual named Abu Muhammad al-Afzal in his works, indicating the use of Afzal as a surname during that era.

In the 11th century, the name Afzal appeared in the Ghaznavid dynasty, which ruled over parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. One notable figure was Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi's vizier, Ahmad bin Hasan Maimandi, who was also known as Al-Afzal al-Bakharzai.

During the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, the surname Afzal was relatively common among the nobility and scholars in the Indian subcontinent. One prominent individual was Malik Ambar, an Abyssinian-origin military leader and prime minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, who was also known as Afzal Khan (1549-1626).

Another notable historical figure with the surname Afzal was Mirza Muhammad Afzal Beg, a 17th-century Mughal nobleman and the governor of Kashmir under Emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707).

In the 19th century, the name Afzal was also found among the intellectual and literary circles of the Indian subcontinent. One such figure was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Bahadur (1817-1898), a Muslim philosopher and social reformer who founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, which later became Aligarh Muslim University.

Over time, the surname Afzal has spread to various parts of the world, particularly through migration and diaspora communities from the Middle East and South Asia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Afzal

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Afzal.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Afzal was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Afzal has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Afzal was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Afzal, please contact us.

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