Näf

surname · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/nɛf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Näf is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Switzerland than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 2.2K(measured from records)
  • USUnited States1 in 690Kas Naef
  • SESweden1 in 262K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Näf itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Switzerland (measured from records)

3,824 people, 2024

Sources
145 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 2.2K (inferred from the name graph)

Switzerland

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

NaefLatin(measured from records)

Locally spelled Naef in US United States, CH Switzerland, AU Australia and 3 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Näf counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Näf is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CH Switzerland#2303,8241 in 2.2K3.8KNaef62
US United States—482as Naef1 in 690K484Naef145
PK Pakistan—≈170 est.≈1 in 1.4Mlisted—1
IT Italy—≈140 est.≈1 in 440K—Naef4
AR Argentina—133as Naef1 in 342K133—1
AU Australia—≈89 est.≈1 in 285K1Naef30
SE Sweden—391 in 262K39Naef7
NZ New Zealand—≈30 est.≈1 in 163K—Naef9
LI Liechtenstein—≈2 est.≈1 in 16K11—4

3,824 people counted by BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames), 2024, counting the spelling näf. 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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Statistik Liechtenstein — Familiennamenstatistik (surnames). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Näf is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Naf

  • English surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Switzerland, Canada, Nigeria

    Also written Naf

  • Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, United States

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Naf, Náf, Ñaf

  • Swedish surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark

    Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

    Also written Naf

  • Italian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, Italy

    Also written Naf

  • German surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, France, Germany, United States

    Languages: German, French

    Also written Naf, Nãf, Ñäf, Nàf

  • Russian surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

    Also written Naf, Наф

21 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1400160018002000Adam Näf, b. 1495Maria Näf, b. 1550Jonas Näf, b. 1826Werner Näf, b. 1894Rösli Näf, b. 1911Ernst Näf, b. 1920Fritz Näf, b. 1943Ruth Humbel, b. 1957Beat Näf, b. 1957Ralph Näf, b. 1980

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalSehr geehrte Damen und Herren,Dear Näf, (English)
InformalSehr geehrte Damen und Herren,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 8 sources across 5 countries.

Official registers attesting Näf
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20243.8K#166
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—39#15,418
LI LiechtensteinStatistik Liechtenstein — Familiennamenstatistik (surnames)202011—

Reference works 3

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

How do you pronounce Näf?
A machine transcription gives /nɛf/ (IPA) for German.
In which country does Näf have the most bearers?
In Switzerland, the national register counted about 3.8 thousand people named Näf, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled naef.
Where is Näf most common?
Näf is densest in Switzerland, where the national register counts about 1 in 2.2 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Näf?
In Switzerland, the national register counted 3,824 people named Näf in 2024, about 1 in 2.2 thousand residents.
How common is Näf compared with other names?
In Switzerland, Näf is the 230th most common surname of 127,759 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Näf?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/n%C3%A4f

The 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, “Näf” — the 230th most common surname in Switzerland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Näf parses inside a full name →