Mafa
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A Chadic language of Cameroon and Nigeria
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 7 countries
Mafa is a male given name written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in Mexico.
- PTPortugal
- ZASouth Africa
- MXMexico
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Mexico (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 21 (measured from records)
no count published
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)A Chadic language of Cameroon and Nigeria.
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Mafa counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MX Mexico | — | — | Mafa | 9 |
| BR Brazil | — | 248 | Mafa | 21 |
| US United States | — | — | Mafa | 10 |
| AR Argentina | — | — | Mafa | 10 |
| ZA South Africa | — | — | Mafa | 14 |
| CL Chile | — | 1 | Mafa | 9 |
| PT Portugal | — | — | Mafa | 7 |
| SV El Salvador | — | — | Mafa | 1 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); SRCEI — Nombres más comunes (guaguas, 1920–2021). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Mafa 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 rtm, eyes or face; spectacles; hole, opening, aperture --- in certain connections only (a crab’s hole, the ‘eyes’ of a coconut, mesh of a net); sharp edge --- of knife, axe, cut tin, broken glass, etc.; leader, head, ruler (in imitation of [Fijian](LanguageTable#cldf:266)
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In rtm, raw, uncooked; green, undried
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
In Swahili, cemetery, burial place
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mnc, romanization of ᠮᠠᡶᠠ
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mxe, heavy
as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0
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.
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)10 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 7 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 248 | #30,809 |
Reference works 2
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Mafa mean, and where does it come from?
- A Chadic language of Cameroon and Nigeria. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- Is Mafa a male or female name?
- Mafa 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.
- In which country does Mafa have the most bearers?
- Mafa is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled mafa.
What do you want to know about Mafa?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/mafaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Mafa”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.