Explore the Family Name Safi

The meaning of Safi

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ṣafī ‘honest friend, intercessor’, from ṣaffā ‘to make pure’. Some characteristic forenames: Arabic/Muslim Mohammad, Omar, Mohammed, Mohamed, Ehsan, Masoud, Safi, Samer, Wafa, Walid, Zahir, Abdul.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Safi in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Safi has shown a significant increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Safi ranked 24,350 in terms of frequency among surnames. However, by 2010, its rank had jumped to 17,367, marking a rise of nearly 29%. Similarly, the count of individuals carrying the Safi surname increased from 964 in 2000 to 1,626 in 2010, an impressive growth rate of almost 69%. The proportion of people with this surname per 100,000 individuals also escalated by 52.78%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#24,350	#17,367	28.68%
Count	964	1,626	68.67%
Proportion per 100k	0.36	0.55	52.78%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Safi

Ethnic identity associated with the surname Safi is diverse as referenced by the Decennial U.S. Census data from 2000 to 2010. The majority of individuals with this surname identify as White, with the percentage increasing from 56.12% in 2000 to 59.78% in 2010. Individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander also showed an increase over this period, from 6.43% to 10.09%. On the other hand, those identifying as having two or more ethnicities fell from 28.42% to 23.74%, while those identifying as Hispanic dropped from 4.46% to 3.26%. The data for Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnic identities was suppressed in 2010 for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	56.12%	59.78%	6.52%
Two or More Races	28.42%	23.74%	-16.47%
Asian/Pacific Islander	6.43%	10.09%	56.92%
Hispanic	4.46%	3.26%	-26.91%
Black	4.05%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.52%	0%	0%