- Meaning
- Noble, honourable, of high lineage
- Gender
- Boy
- Arabic root
- ش-ر-ف
- Urdu
- شَرِیف
Is Sharif an Islamic name? Yes. Sharif is an established name in Muslim use. Its settled meaning is: Noble, honourable, of high lineage. It was carried by Nawaz Sharif.. Islamic tradition asks that a name carry a good meaning and claim nothing that belongs to God alone, and this name meets both.
Read the letter-by-letter reading ↓Sharif Name Meaning in Islam
A reading of Sharif: the meaning, the letters, the demand it makes on the one who carries it.
Section 1 · Arabic Root
Where the Name Comes From
ش-ر-ف (sharufa, to be noble). This root is the linguistic-spiritual family of the name; other names sharing the same root carry a related weight.
Section 2 · Ilm ul Huroof
Read Letter by Letter
Ra ر motion, mercy in movement.
Ya ی aspiration, reaching.
Fa ف opening, the burst of speech.
Sheen radiates, Ra sets motion, Ya aspires, Fa opens: a name that begins in radiance and ends in opening. Nobility that moves outward, always aspires higher, and speaks.
Section 3 · Synthesis
What This Reading Says About You
Sharif's letters draw from many elements at once, a full palette, not a single note. This is a name that asks its bearer to hold contradictions gracefully: warmth and steadiness, movement and depth. Running through the reading is Al-Shakur, the Appreciative, carried by a person as a way of noticing and honouring small kindnesses. A person named Sharif lives with more inside them than any one word can hold.
Section 4 · What Families Say
What People Usually Mean by This Name
شریف Sharif کا مطلب: اعلیٰ نسب کا، معزز، شرافت والا۔ آل رسول ﷺ کی نسل کے لیے استعمال ہوتا ہے۔
Sharif, from the Arabic root ش-ر-ف (sh-r-f, "to be high, exalted, noble"), names the person of noble lineage and honourable conduct. In Islamic tradition, "Sharif" is the honorific for descendants of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through Hasan (as opposed to Sayyid, through Husayn). More broadly, Sharif is one of the most respected male names across the Arab and South Asian Muslim world.
Section 5 · Bearers
Who Has Carried This Name
- Nawaz Sharif. Three-time Prime Minister of Pakistan.
- Al-Sharif. The honorific of Meccan and Medinan noble families.
How to Pronounce Sharif
sha-REEF. Arabic: ʃa-ˈriːf.
Common variant spellings: shareef, shareaf.
See also: Muslim Baby Names A to Z, The 25 Quranic Prophets, Ilm ul Huroof: The Science of Letters.
Frequently Asked Questions