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Hanif

#9,201 in 2025Boys' name

True believer, righteous (person)

Hanif has been given to 784 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #9,201 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2004, with 29 recorded.

Babies named Hanif, 2025

1 in 414,000

Hanif over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hanif: meaning, origin, and history

True believer, righteous (person)

Arabic

What Hanif means

Hanif means “true believer, righteous (person)”, associated with ḥanīf.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

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

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Hanif (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Hanif is used in English. Its origins include Arabic.

Hanif comes through Arabic حَنِيف.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 784 boys were recorded with the name Hanif between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 29 in 2004; its best national rank was #2,624 in 1979.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,323 in 2020 to #9,201 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,590 in 2015 to #9,201 in 2025.

How common is Hanif?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 213,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#9,201
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hanif sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hanif. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hanifs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hanif was born before 2002 — so the typical Hanif is around 23 today.

Median birth year
2002
About 23 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
24.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
53.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
784
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 24.7% of all recorded uses (194).

Is Hanif rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−3,459
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,878
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,611
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.50×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
27.6%
Peak was 2004 (29)
Years since peak
21
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
42.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,624
1979

Spellings of Hanif

Hanif is not the most common spelling — Hank is, with 28.5% against Hanif's 1.3%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Hanif is used

Across 1910–2025, Hanif was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 151,668 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  2. 2New Jersey1 in —
  3. 3New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Hanif has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hanif around the world

Where Hanif ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,664
    in 2025
  • France
    2006–2025
    #3,913
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2013–2024
    #2,855
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2011–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Hanif by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#9,201
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,878
Best rank ever
#2,624
1979
Peak year
2004
29 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
784
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Hanif

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

HanadHaniHansenHanleyHaneefHanielHanHanzelHansonHandyHananHanzoHannahHannibalHanselHanzHannaHannielHanceHanfordHansHannanHansfordHank

Sibling names for Hanif

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Hanif

Top names of 2004, Hanif's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1979Boys' names starting with H