Jaafar

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Zafar in PK Pakistan, US United States, SA Saudi Arabia and 5 more, Jafar in IN India, NG Nigeria, SY Syria and 3 more, Зафар in RU Russia, UZ Uzbekistan, KZ Kazakhstan and 2 more and Джафар in UA Ukraine, AZ Azerbaijan.

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●

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◐

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

• Spanish surname3.9K records spelled Jaafar13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Malaysia, Philippines, United States

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Ja'Afar, Jááfãř, Jâáfár, Jäafar, Jaâfar

• Chinese surname1.4K records spelled Jaafar2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Singapore, Iraq, United Kingdom

  Also written Ja'Afar

• a separate surname1.4K records spelled Jaafar6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Malaysia, United States, Morocco

  Also written Ja'Afar, Ja’afar, Jaâfar, Jaa̕far, Jâafar

• English (Singapore) surname811 records spelled Jaafar2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Singapore

  Also written Ja'Afar

• Thai surname714 records spelled Jaafar15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Iran

  Also written Jafari, จาฟาร์, Chafa, จาฟารี, Jaafari

• Korean surname513 records spelled Jaafar5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, India, Iran

  Also written Jafar, Ja'Afar, 자파르, Jaâfar

• Sinhala surname513 records spelled Jaafar2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, United States, India, Netherlands

  Also written Ja'Afar

42 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●

Jaafar is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Arabic, small river, rivulet

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• small river

  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●

SE SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) — 22 years between 1999–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Aziz Jaafarb. 1935SGSingaporean actor, singer, director and screenwriter (1935–2005)
• Jaafar Jaafarb. 1978NGNigerian Journalist
• Maha Jaafarb. 1994SDSudanese-Iraqi activist and social media influencer
• Hamoody Jaafaractor
• Fehmi JaafarCAPh.D. Université de Montréal 2014
• Rosidah JaafarGBresearcher
• Jafariah Jaafarresearcher

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 · 105 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Jaafar?

We estimate roughly 2.6 thousand people bear Jaafar (counting its spellings and scripts) across 3 countries in our records.

In which country does Jaafar have the most bearers?

Jaafar is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled jafar.

How common is Jaafar compared with other names?

In Pakistan, Jaafar is the 23rd most common given name of 75,254 given names recorded there.

What does the name Jaafar mean?

Recorded meaning: Personal name also appearing as Jafer, Jaffar and Jaffari.