Boy · Arabic · Muslim
Nafi
نافعSay it NAA-fey
- Meaning
- Useful, profitable, beneficial, wholesome Platts, p. 1115
- Say it
- NAA-fey
- Written
- نافع
- Other spellings
- Nafee, Nafey, Naafi
Nafi
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Nafi meaning
Nafi (نافع) is a Muslim boy's name of Arabic origin.
Useful, profitable, beneficial, wholesome
Nafi (نافع) is the Arabic nāfiʿ, the active participle of nafaʿa, "to benefit". Platts's Urdu dictionary gives it as useful, profitable, advantageous, beneficial and wholesome. Name lists give Nafi as "beneficial" or "useful", matching the dictionary. Al-Nāfiʿ, "the One who benefits", is among the names of God, so some scholars, including a Deoband fatwa, suggest the form Abdun Nafi, "servant of the Benefactor". Famous bearers include Nāfiʿ al-Madanī, one of the seven canonical readers of the Quran, and Nāfiʿ, the freed man of Ibn ʿUmar who narrated many hadith.
Source: Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English (1884), p. 1115 · entry nāfěʻ (نافع) · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026
References: Platts, Dictionary of Urdu, nāfěʻ, p. 1115 · Lane, Arabic–English Lexicon, nafaʿa, p. 3036 · Darul Ifta Deoband via IslamQA.org, naming a child Nafi · Wikipedia, Nafi' al-Madani · Wikipedia, Nafi' Mawla Ibn Umar
Famous namesakes
- Nafi al-Madani, one of the seven canonical Quran readers
- Nafi, mawla of Ibn Umar, hadith narrator
Spellings
Nafi · Nafee · Nafey · Naafi