Name Awesome

Mustafa

#761 in 2025Boys' name

The chosen one

Mustafa has been given to 7,373 babies in the U.S. since 1963. In 2025 it ranked #761 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 339 recorded.

Babies named Mustafa, 2025

1 in 9,780

Mustafa over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mustafa: meaning, origin, and history

The chosen one

Arabic

What Mustafa means

Mustafa means “the chosen one”, associated with muṣṭafā.

Origin, language, and formation

Mustafa is used in English, Albanian, Azerbaijani, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Mustafa comes through Arabic مُصْطَفَى.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Azerbaijani, Mustafa is pronounced [mustɑˈfɑ].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,373 boys were recorded with the name Mustafa between 1963 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 339 in 2025; its best national rank was #761 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,045 in 2020 to #761 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #907 in 2015 to #761 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Mustafa?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 9,780
339 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 5,040
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#761
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
6,780 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mustafa 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 1001%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 6,780 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mustafa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mustafas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mustafa was born before 2011 — so the typical Mustafa is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
30.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
72.4%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
7,373
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 30.4% of all recorded uses (2,243).

Is Mustafa 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
+61
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+284
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+146
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.42×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (339)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
10.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#761
2025

Spellings of Mustafa

Mustafa is the most-used spelling, taking 77.4% of the 9,529 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Mustafa is used

Across 2016–2025, Mustafa was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 1,961 boys, against 1 in 5,887 across all states with data. It was least common in Arizona (1 in 100,000).

151 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 1,961
  2. 2New York1 in 2,632
  3. 3New Jersey1 in 3,125
  4. 4Virginia1 in 3,125
  5. 5Illinois1 in 3,333
  6. 6Michigan1 in 4,000
  7. 7Washington1 in 4,167
  8. 8Ohio1 in 4,545

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.

Mustafa around the world

Where Mustafa 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
    #170
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1977–2025
    #333
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2000–2025
    #309
    in 2025
  • France
    1952–2025
    #632
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #292
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #329
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1975–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Mustafa

People whose public names include Mustafa, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Mustafa in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Mustafa. Linked forms have their own page here.

MostafaMoustafaMustaphaMoustaphaMostaphaMusztafa

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Mustafa by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#761
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 284
Best rank ever
#761
2025
Peak year
2025
339 that year
First recorded
1963
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,373
Count in 2025
339

Names similar to Mustafa

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

MusaMustaphaMostafaMusabMustafoMuscabMoustafaMustafeMussaMusaabMuslimMusiqMustafMusawerMussieMuseMusashiMustafaaRafaMusawirMustaqeemMussiahMusicMustafah

Names with a curve like Mustafa

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Mustafa, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

YisroelMordechaiYehudaAndersYaakovShlomoShmuelMenachemAmeerYitzchokShimonMikael

Sibling names for Mustafa

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 Mustafa

Top names of 2025, Mustafa's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Boys' names starting with MMuslim Boy Names