Safiya is a distinctive choice, ranked #481 in 2024. Your child is likely to be the only Safiya in their class.
💎
UK Rank 2024
#481
About the Name Safiya
Safiya is climbing rapidly up the charts, having climbed 97 places in just five years. Its best recorded rank was #444 in 2009 — and current momentum suggests it could challenge that mark again. The name has been a consistent presence in UK records since 1996.
Safiya is distinctive enough that your child will likely be the only one in both their class and their school — standing out on every register.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the name Safiya
Unlikely. With around 84 UK babies named Safiya per year, your child will almost certainly be the only Safiya in her class, and possibly the only one in the whole school.
Safiya is currently rising in popularity in the UK, up 97 places over the last five years to #481 in 2024. If this trend continues, it will become more common in classrooms over the next decade.
Safiya is a distinctive choice sitting outside the mainstream UK top names. Parents choosing less common names often find their children appreciate the individuality as they grow up, rarely needing to add an initial to distinguish themselves.
Notable people named Safiya include: Hussam Abu Safiya — Hussam Idris Abu Safiya (Arabic: حسام إدريس أبو صفية, romanized: Ḥusām Idrīs Abū Ṣafīyah; born 21 November 1973) is a Palestinian paediatrician and...; Safiya Sinclair — Safiya Sinclair is a Jamaican poet and memoirist.; Safiya Hussaini — Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu is a Nigerian woman condemned to death for adultery in 2002..
Safiya does not appear in the US top 1,000 baby names, making it a distinctively British choice — your child is unlikely to encounter American Safiyas in the wild.
84
UK babies named Safiya (2024)
< 1
Expected classmates with this name (class of 28)
~0.0
In a school of 600
↑ 97 places
Rank change (last 5 years)
🏫 Who else is in the room?
In a typical UK class of 28, highlighted children share the name Safiya
Likely around 1 other Safiya in the class
UK Popularity (1996–2024)
Rank and birth count · ONS official data
No US data available for this name
✨ Similar names to Safiya
Names with a similar style — each with their own classroom story
Hussam Idris Abu Safiya (Arabic: حسام إدريس أبو صفية, romanized: Ḥusām Idrīs Abū Ṣafīyah; born 21 November 1973) is a Palestinian paediatrician and neonatologist who served as the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip from February 2024 until its evacuation by the Israeli military in December 2024. Abu Safiya was subsequently arrested by Israel and has been detained without charge in Ofer Prison for over a year.
Safiya Sinclair is a Jamaican poet and memoirist. Her debut poetry collection, Cannibal, won several awards, including a Whiting Award for poetry in 2016 and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for poetry in 2017.
Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu is a Nigerian woman condemned to death for adultery in 2002. She gave birth to a child as a single woman in Sokoto, a Nigerian state under Sharia law.
Safiya Bukhari was an American member of the Black Panther Party. She was a co-founder of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) and the Jericho Movement for U.S.
Safiya George (formerly Dalmida) is a U.S. Virgin Islands nurse practitioner and academic administrator specialized in holistic health, spirituality, and HIV.