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Safiyah vs Saford

American parents have registered 799 Safiyahs since 1880, against 11 Safords. Safiyah is still ahead, with 30 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Safiyah against Saford, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Safiyah Saford

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 40 years in which either name was published, Safiyah for 39 years and Saford for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Safiyah Saford
Total US births 79911
Most in one year 4711
Babies in 2025 30under 5
Estimated living today 7904
Median age today 1184
Peak year 20231941
Best rank 3,386th girls2,207th boys
Rank in 2025 4,546thunranked
First recorded 19851941
Girls / boys 799 / 00 / 11

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Safords alive today are over 84; half the Safiyahs are over 11. That is 73 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Safiyah and Saford.