Hafiz

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Hafeez in US United States, EG Egypt, CA Canada and 2 more, Хафиз in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, AZ Azerbaijan, Hafij in IN India and Хафіз in UA Ukraine.

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 7 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◐

Hafiz is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Malay given name118K records spelled Hafiz12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, India

  Languages: Malay, Indonesian

  Also written 'Hafiz, Hafiz', H̳̿a̳̿f̳̿i̳̿z̳̿, Ḥāfiẓ, Hafíz

• a separate given name54K records spelled Hafiz16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, United States, Ethiopia

  Also written Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥāfiz̤, Háfiz, Ḥafīẓ, Ḥāfiż

• Turkish given name13K records spelled Hafiz4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia

  Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

  Also written Háfîz, Hafìz

• Chinese given name4.7K records spelled Hafiz3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Nigeria

  Languages: Chinese, Burmese

  Also written Hăfįż

• Spanish given name3.9K records spelled Hafiz10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, Pakistan, Spain

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Hâfiž, Hafíz, Hàfîz, Ḥāfiz̤, Hãfíz

• French given name3.1K records spelled Hafiz8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Malaysia, United States, Pakistan

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ḥâfiż, Häfiz, Ḥāfiẓ, Ḥâfiẓ, H̳āfiẓ

• Thai given name1.5K records spelled Hafiz69 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Nigeria

  Languages: Thai, Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Hafis, ฮาฟิส, ฮาฟิซ, ฮาฟีซี, ฮาฟีซู

54 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●

Hafiz 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 English, A Muslim who has memorized the whole Qur'an.

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

• In Arabic, guardian, protector

  as a name·A Dictionary of Muslim Names

• In Arabic, guard; protector

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• Protector

  as a name·25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

• guardian

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

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●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 94 years between 1899–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Hafız Ahmed Paşab. 1564BGnot in their usual nameOttoman grand vizier (1564–1632)
• Hafiz Ibrahimb. 1872EGEgyptian poet
• Hafız Mehmetb. 1874TRnot in their usual nameTurkish statesperson (1874–1926)
• Hafiz Hakki Pashab. 1879MKGeneral of the Ottoman Empire military (1879–1915)
• Hafez Assadb. 1930SYnot in their usual namePresident of Syria from 1971 to 2000
• Hafiz Uddin Ahmadb. 1939BDBangladeshi politician, former military officer, speaker and football player
• Hafiz Pashayevb. 1941AZAzerbaijani diplomat
• Hafiz Saeedb. 1950PKPakistani convicted terrorist
• Hafız Süleymanoğlub. 1967TRnot in their usual nameTurkish weightlifter (born 1967)
• Muhammad Hafiz Hashimb. 1982MYMalaysian badminton player

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 · 414 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Hafiz?

We estimate roughly 1.6 thousand people bear Hafiz (counting its spellings and scripts) across 5 countries in our records.

In which country does Hafiz have the most bearers?

Hafiz is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled hafij.

How common is Hafiz compared with other names?

In Pakistan, Hafiz is the 51st most common given name of 75,254 given names recorded there.

Is Hafiz a male or female name?

Hafiz 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 Hafiz mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘Custodian’, ‘guardian’.