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

Niazi, 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 Niazi surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Niazi in America

Niazi is the 25332nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Niazi surname appeared 977 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Niazi.

We can also compare 2010 data for Niazi 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 Niazi

The surname Niazi has its origins in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, where it first emerged in the 16th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic word "nizah," meaning "lance" or "spear," which suggests that the name may have been associated with warriors or soldiers. The Niazi Pashtun tribe, from which the name originates, inhabited the areas around the Khyber Pass, which connects modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Niazi can be found in Persian and Afghan manuscripts from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. One notable reference is in the Akbar Nama, a biographical account of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, which mentions a certain Malik Niazi who served as a military commander in the Mughal army.

In the 17th century, a prominent figure bearing the name Niazi was Khushal Khan Khattak, a Pashtun warrior-poet born in 1613 in the Akora region of modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He is renowned for his poetry and his fierce resistance against the Mughal Empire. Another notable Niazi from this era was Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad, a Sufi scholar and poet who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries in the region of modern-day Afghanistan.

During the 18th century, the Niazi name gained prominence with the rise of the Afghan Durrani Empire. One of the most influential figures of this period was Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani Empire, who was born in 1722 in the Kandahar region of modern-day Afghanistan. Although not a Niazi himself, his army included many Niazi soldiers and commanders.

In the 19th century, the Niazi name continued to be associated with military and political leadership in the region. One notable figure was Syed Ahmed Barelvi, a revivalist Islamic scholar and leader of the Jihad Movement against the Sikh Empire, who was born in 1786 in the town of Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, India.

As the centuries passed, the Niazi name spread beyond its original geographic boundaries, with Niazi communities found in various parts of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. However, its strongest associations remain with the Pashtun tribes of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and the legacy of military prowess and leadership that has been interwoven with its history.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Niazi

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

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 Niazi 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 Niazi 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 Niazi was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!