What are your opinions on the name Safiya?

[Willowson]

Hello,

Safiya is the top contender for our baby girl.

What do you think?

Thanks :)

I nannied a Safiyah, she was a gorgeous little thing! I love it!

I think it's a beautiful name, and I certainly don't think that it looks or sounds like a younique spelling! Go for it, OP!

Gorgeous name. Sounds beautiful and strong all at the same time.

Totally agree neonrainbow..It's pig ignorant

My experience is that even within an Arabic speaking culture people can still pronounce it as Sofiya and people then have to ask is it Sofiya or Safiya. If that would matter to you then it might be better to chose something else.

Personally I think there are much nicer names from this part of the world, it's actually a very heavy sounding name to give a little girl and the ones I've known who were called Safiyah seemed to be overloaded/weighed down by it.

I don't live in an area withna lot of Muslim people so I'm not very au fait with names but even I've heard of it as a proper name before so I don't think people will think it's a unique spelling of Sophia. I really like it.

It's a lovely name, uncommon without being 'out there'. So much nicer than Sophia.

I love Saffi, too. I'm very surprised at people thinking it is 'try hard' or 'yooneek'.

I love it - and I know one who is one of the kindest, most helpful and most cheerful people I've ever met!

Can't believe some of these responses. It's a lovely name and easily recognisable.

You'd have to be a bit uneducated/igjorant to think it was just a unique spelling

Congratulations on your baby. I think Safiya is a beautiful name and it can be shorted to Safi too.

I can't believe some of the responses on here but these people would have had something unkind to say whatever name you chose.

That's thing though, there are A LOT of uneducated people out there. If someone can look at my daughter's (fairly common) Irish name and ask a shed load of questions about vowels, the IRA (FFS!) and all manner of other totally unrelated shit then they will do it about anything. It doesn't make the people on this thread uneducated, unworldly or anything else it means they know that there are people out there who don't understand anything out of the ordinary. My UKIP loving neighbour would have a frigging field day with it like she did when she heard the name of my youngest DD.

As for the name I don't like it but then I also don't like Sophia.

I think it's beautiful and timeless. I live in a big city with a large Muslim population so it's a familiar (though not over-used) name to me. There have often been Safiya's in the schools I've worked in but not lots of them. Go for it :)

Lovely.

Lovely!

^^ exactly this, neonrainbow

How are you pronouncing it? I've known several Safia s (saf - ee - ya ) which I think sounds pretty. Or are you going for saf - eye - ya? I'm not so keen on that, personally. But I don't find it offensive in any way.

Love it, it's gorgeous.
I'm a bit surprised that people don't recognise it as a name, I'm from a rather white area but even I know this is a name that isn't even that unusual. It definitely doesn't look yoonique, it just looks lovely.

To be honest racists will be racist anyway if you are Muslim, not because of a name.

To eatspam

So.....because some people are racist and some are ignorant and some have to ask a spelling all us ethnic people should just call our kids Eva and Milo and Tabitha??

MN really does exist in its own bubble sometimes. Where do some of you live? Chipping Norton? (As an aside DH and me went to chipping norton on holiday. Wow. It was like something out of the league of gentleman. I mean it was beautiful like all of the Cotswolds but we were the only brown faces that we saw for DAYS. Felt sooo weird. Then we saw another ethnic couple and got really excited. 'Look. Black people!!')

In 36 years I've had to spell my name a lot. A. Lot. Big whoop.

Saffiya isn't even an unusual name!

I think it's really pretty , I like Zarin and Amanah too.

Wowee so people should avoid drawing attention when naming their children of different ethnicities so that racists don't notice them and give them a hard time?
That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read on mumsnet.

Totally agree neon. MN baby name board really disappoints me at times.

the ones I've known who were called Safiyah seemed to be overloaded/weighed down by it.

What does that even mean?

I'm from a small town in NI and in comparison to the rest of the Uk we aren't known for our multiculturism. I haven't travelled much at all but I've heard of the name safiya many times with different variations on spellings. I was under the impression it was a pretty popular name. Yes there would be questions on spelling but you have to do that with Catherine or Lindsay or Rebecca.