Sufyan is an Arabic name of uncertain meaning, most often explained as "walking fast" or "swift"; some link it instead to the word safa, "pure". It is a name from the earliest days of Islam, borne by the Meccan leader Abu Sufyan and the 8th-century scholar Sufyan al-Thawri. In the United States Sufyan ranked number 5007 in 2000 and has moved up unevenly since, reaching number 2252 in 2025, its highest rank to date.