Gender: Feminine
Origin: Arabic صفيّة
Meaning: “pure.”
(sah-FEE-yah)
The name is derived from the Arabic word, saf صاف (pure).
The name was borne by Safiyya Bint Huyayy, a Jewish-Bedouin woman who converted to Islam and became one of the Prophet Mohammed’s wives. It was also borne by Safiyya bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib, a Sahaba of Mohammed.
As of 2010, its Maghrebin form of Safia was the 293rd most popular female name in France. Her variant forms appear throughout the French top 500; their rankings are as follows:
- # 297 (Safa)
- # 466 (Safiya)
Safiyyah was the 10th most popular female name in Malaysia (2011)
Other forms of Safiya include:
- Safija Сафия (Albanian/Bosnian/Bulgarian/Central Asian)
- Safia (Algerian/Berber/Moroccan/Tunisian)
- Safa (Arabic)
- Saffiya (Arabic)
- Safiye (Azeri/Kurdish/Turkish)
- Shafiyah (Indonesian)
- Safiyyah (Malaysian)
- Safiya صفیه (Persian)