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Naif

#11,574 in 2025Boys' name

High, excellent

Naif has been given to 168 babies in the U.S. since 1981. In 2025 it ranked #11,574 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2013, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Naif, 2025

1 in 553,000

Naif over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Naif: meaning, origin, and history

High, excellent

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Naif means

Naif means “high, excellent”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Naif is used in Arabic.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈnaː.jif/ for Naif.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 168 boys were recorded with the name Naif between 1981 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 19 in 2013; its best national rank was #4,917 in 2013.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #10,260 in 2020 to #11,574 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,904 in 2015 to #11,574 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.

How common is Naif?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#11,574
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Naif 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 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Naif. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Naifs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Naif was born before 2015 — so the typical Naif is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
66.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
94.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
168
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 66.1% of all recorded uses (111).

Is Naif 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
+331
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,314
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−5,670
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.40×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
31.6%
Peak was 2013 (19)
Years since peak
12
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,917
2013

Spellings of Naif

Naif is not the most common spelling — Neil is, with 31.3% against Naif's 0.05%.

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 Naif is used

Across 1910–2025, Naif was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 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. Naif has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Naif around the world

Where Naif 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
    2010–2025
    #3,684
    in 2025

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Naif by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#11,574
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,314
Best rank ever
#4,917
2013
Peak year
2013
19 that year
First recorded
1981
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
168
Count in 2025
6

Names similar to Naif

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

NainNaiRaifNailNaimNaithanNainoaNaielNaiemNaiimNaidenNaitikSaifKaifNairoLaifNaithenNaingNairobiNaieemNaiymNaireTaifNaishawn

Sibling names for Naif

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 Naif

Top names of 2013, Naif's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2013Boys' names starting with N