Aya
A feminine Arabic name meaning "wonderful" or "a sign from God".
Name Census estimates that about 7,440 living Americans carry the first name Aya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aya births was 2024 (467 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aya. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Aya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Aya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,069 Americans
Peak year
2024
467 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#630
Tracked since 1972
Census
Aya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,560 people with the first name Aya, which placed it at #2,972 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,972
National first-name rank
People counted
7.6K
7,560 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aya is White at 59.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.0%) and Two or More Races (11.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Aya described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Aya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.2% · 4,473
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.0% · 1,282
- Two or more races11.1% · 836
- Black or African American9.0% · 681
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 269
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 19
Popularity
Aya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aya from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,956 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aya by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Aya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, New York, Michigan recorded the most babies named Aya, while Nebraska, Alabama, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 180 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aya
The name Aya is believed to have originated from various ancient languages and cultures, with different meanings and origins attributed to it. One of the earliest known origins can be traced back to the Japanese language, where the name is written using the hiragana characters あや (aya) or 彩 (aya). In Japanese, the name can mean "colorful," "design," or "pattern," reflecting the vibrant and artistic nature of the name.
Another possible origin of the name Aya is from Arabic, where it is spelled آية (Āyah) and means "sign," "miracle," or "verse from the Quran." In Islamic culture, the name holds significance as it is associated with the revelations and teachings found in the holy book.
The name Aya also has roots in the Hebrew language, where it is spelled אָיָה (Ayah) and can mean "bird," "falcon," or "hawk." This connection to birds may symbolize freedom, strength, and keen vision.
In ancient Egyptian history, the name Aya was used as a variant of the name Ay, which was the name of an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the 18th Dynasty around 1323–1319 BCE. Pharaoh Ay is known for his brief reign and for completing the construction of the famous mortuary temple of Akhenaten at Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna).
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Aya was Aya of Ghazni, an 11th-century Persian princess and the daughter of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. She is known for her patronage of art and literature during the Islamic Golden Age.
Another notable figure was Aya of Kyoto, a Japanese Buddhist nun and poet who lived during the Kamakura period (1185–1333 CE). She was renowned for her contributions to the development of Japanese literature and poetry.
In the 16th century, Aya Bey was a prominent Ottoman statesman and military commander who served as the Beylerbeyi (Governor-General) of Egypt from 1549 to 1551 CE.
During the 19th century, Aya Kaneko was a Japanese educator and one of the first female principals in Japan. She played a significant role in promoting women's education and empowerment in the late Edo and Meiji periods.
More recently, Aya Matsuura is a Japanese singer and actress who gained popularity as a member of the J-pop group Morning Musume in the early 2000s.
People
Aya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Aya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,440 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aya going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 46,069 US residents.
Is Aya a common name?
We classify Aya as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,534 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aya most popular?
The single biggest year for Aya was 2024, when 467 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,560 people with the name Aya, or 2.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,972 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Aya in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Aya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aya appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,553 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Aya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aya is White at 59.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.0%) and Two or More Races (11.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Aya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.2% (4,473 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Aya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aya in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Aya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aya in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Aya can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Aya?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Aya at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.