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

Shafi, 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 Shafi surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Shafi in America

Shafi is the 25255th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Shafi surname appeared 981 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 Shafi.

We can also compare 2010 data for Shafi 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 Shafi

The surname SHAFI is believed to have originated in the Middle East, specifically in the Persian regions of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan. Its roots can be traced back to the 9th century AD, during the Islamic Golden Age.

The name SHAFI is derived from the Arabic word "Shafi'i," which refers to one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence founded by the scholar Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-820 AD). This school of thought, known as the Shafi'i madhhab, gained widespread acceptance and influenced various aspects of Islamic culture and society.

Historical records indicate that the name SHAFI first appeared in manuscripts and documents related to Islamic scholarship and legal texts from the 9th and 10th centuries AD. One of the earliest known references to the name can be found in the works of the renowned Persian polymath, Al-Biruni (973-1048 AD), who mentions individuals bearing the surname SHAFI in his writings on Islamic jurisprudence and astronomy.

As the influence of the Shafi'i school of thought spread across various regions, the surname SHAFI also gained prominence. In the 11th century, the name is mentioned in records from the Seljuk Empire, which ruled over parts of Central Asia, Iran, and Anatolia.

Notable individuals who bore the surname SHAFI include Abu Bakr al-Shafi'i (d. 976 AD), a prominent Islamic scholar and jurist from Baghdad; Muhammad al-Shafi'i (d. 1088 AD), a renowned poet and literary figure from Isfahan, Iran; and Yahya al-Shafi'i (d. 1299 AD), a Sufi mystic and scholar from Shiraz, Iran.

During the 13th century, the name SHAFI appeared in records from the Delhi Sultanate in northern India, indicating the spread of the surname to the Indian subcontinent. One notable figure from this period was Qazi Shafi (d. 1292 AD), a respected jurist and scholar who served under the Delhi Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban.

In more recent times, the surname SHAFI has been associated with several influential figures, such as Muhammad Shafi (1858-1936), a renowned Islamic scholar and reviver of the Deobandi movement in British India, and Maulana Shafi Deobandi (1892-1976), a prominent Islamic scholar and founder of the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in India.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Shafi

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

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

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

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