Given name & surname · also Gaelic
Africa
“one who is pleasant; from Africa”
Africa is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “one who is pleasant; from Africa.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “one who is pleasant; from Africa.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
From Old French Affrique, from Latin Āfrica, from Latin āfrica, from Latin āfricus, built from Latin Āfer + -icus.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1969. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Africa through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,042
- 0 boys · 1,042 girls
- Most popular year
- 1972
- 76 babies
- 2025
- 8
- #10,945 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- 0%
- Steady
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 8 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 10,945 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was virtually unchanged in 2021–2025 compared with 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 76 in 1972. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,018 as a first name in 2020; 524 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Africa’s family of names
Africa has a related form in Afrika. Africa has a related form in Affreeca. Africa has a related form in Affrica.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 18
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 3
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Africa
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
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