Arif

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Areef in GY Guyana, AU Australia and Aarif in MA Morocco.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Arif is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Turkish given name974K records spelled Arif24 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Syria, India, Saudi Arabia

  Languages: Turkish, Arabic, Azerbaijani

  Also written A'Rif, 'Arif, Ârif, Ãrif, Arìf

• English given name487K records spelled Arif31 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Bangladesh, India, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: English, Dutch, Western Frisian

  Also written A'Rif, 'Arif, Aŕif, Ãrif, Arift

• Indonesian given name308K records spelled Arif15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, United States

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Arif', 'Arif, A'Rif, Ärif, Arìf

• a separate given name92K records spelled Arif3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Pakistan, Türkiye

  Also written Ārif, Ârif

• German given name16K records spelled Arif6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, Austria, Türkiye, United States

  Also written Ârïf, Aerìf, Aerif, Ärìf

• French given name15K records spelled Arif11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Türkiye, Spain, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ãrïf, Ăřïf, Àrįf, Ārīf, Äŕîf

• Spanish given name13K records spelled Arif18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Türkiye, Spain, India

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Årif, Ãrif, Äřif, Âřîf, Arîf

• Russian given name13K records spelled Arif50 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Bulgaria

  Languages: Russian, Uzbek, Bulgarian

  Also written Ариф, Ориф, Аріф, Orif, Ареф

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Arif is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, männl. Vom. türkischer Herkunft (türk. arif »weise« aus gleichbedeutend arab. ‘a rif).

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• learned; knowledgeable.

  as a name·Muslim baby names (our 2,000 meaningful and beautiful names for boys and girls) English-Urdu with Roman

• Chief, one who

  as a name·Dictionary of Islamic Names

• knowledgeable

  as a name·Whats in a name = Unaitwaje a Swahili book of names

• In crh, letter (of the alphabet), character (written or printed symbol or letter)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

XK ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) — 148 years between 1865–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Arif Mardinb. 1932TRTurkish-American record producer (1932–2006)
• Arif Malikovb. 1933AZSoviet and Azerbaijani composer (1933-2019)
• Aref Arefkiab. 1940IRnot in their usual nameIranian singer and former actor
• Arif Alvib. 1949PK13th President of Pakistan from 2018 to 2024
• Arif Mohammad Khanb. 1951INFormer governor of Bihar
• Arif Aliyevb. 1960RURussian writer
• Arif Erdemb. 1972TRTurkish association football player (born 1972)
• Arif S. Kinchenb. 1973USAmerican actor
• Onur Saylakb. 1977TRnot in their usual nameTurkish actor and director (born 1977)
• Arif Aiman Hanapib. 2002MYMalaysian footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 644 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Arif?

We estimate roughly 5.0 thousand people bear Arif (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Arif have the most bearers?

Arif is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled arif.

How common is Arif compared with other names?

In India, Arif is the 752nd most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

Is Arif a male or female name?

Arif is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Arif mean?

Recorded meaning: Çok anlayışlı ve sezgili kimse.