# Hanif (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/hanif/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Meaning | “true believer”, “righteous (person)” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Haniff |
| US babies named this | 784 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 784 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 206, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Arabic حَنِيف (ḥanīf, “true believer, righteous (person)”).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 10 | 7,696 |
| 2012 | 22 | 4,443 |
| 2013 | 14 | 6,026 |
| 2014 | 19 | 4,940 |
| 2015 | 16 | 5,594 |
| 2016 | 14 | 6,148 |
| 2017 | 11 | 7,270 |
| 2018 | 9 | 8,397 |
| 2019 | 13 | 6,545 |
| 2020 | 17 | 5,327 |
| 2021 | 8 | 9,136 |
| 2022 | 19 | 5,099 |
| 2023 | 20 | 4,944 |
| 2024 | 16 | 5,746 |
| 2025 | 8 | 9,205 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 11 | 1,859 |
| 2010 | 10 | 2,036 |
| 2011 | 9 | 2,194 |
| 2012 | 13 | 1,756 |
| 2013 | 7 | 2,660 |
| 2014 | 4 | 3,895 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2016 | 5 | 3,478 |
| 2017 | 6 | 3,040 |
| 2018 | 5 | 3,412 |
| 2020 | 4 | 3,848 |
| 2022 | 8 | 2,529 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4,107 |
| 2024 | 6 | 3,254 |
| 2025 | 8 | 2,664 |

## People named Hanif

- Hanif Kureishi, English writer (born 1954)
- Omar Bogle, English association football player (born 1993)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.