Kamiyah
A feminine name of Arabic origin, meaning "perfection" or "complete".
Name Census estimates that about 5,073 living Americans carry the first name Kamiyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamiyah today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamiyah births was 2020 (414 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamiyah. 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 Kamiyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kamiyah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 67,564 Americans
Peak year
2020
414 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#975
Tracked since 1994
Census
Kamiyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,532 people with the first name Kamiyah, which placed it at #6,369 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
#6,369
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,532 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamiyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamiyah is Black at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.4% · 2,112
- Two or more races9.4% · 239
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 116
- White1.8% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 7
Popularity
Kamiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamiyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,338 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamiyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamiyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Kamiyah, while Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 125 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamiyah
The name Kamiyah has its roots in Arabic and Hebrew origins, tracing back to ancient times. It is a feminine name derived from the Arabic word "kamiya," which means "good" or "excellent." In Hebrew, the name is spelled קמיה, and is related to the word "kemiyah," meaning "chemistry" or "alchemy."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kamiyah can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned in reference to a righteous woman. In the Islamic tradition, the name is often associated with piety, virtue, and wisdom.
During the Middle Ages, the name Kamiyah gained popularity among Arabic and Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa. It was frequently given to girls born during significant astrological events or celestial phenomena, as the name was believed to bring good fortune and prosperity.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Kamiyah. One of the earliest recorded examples is Kamiyah bint Ismail (born c. 710 CE), a renowned Arabic poetess and scholar who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate. Her works were widely celebrated for their eloquence and depth.
Another prominent figure was Kamiyah al-Andalusiyya (born c. 1050 CE), a renowned Muslim scholar and theologian from Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain). She was highly respected for her contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and her advocacy for women's education.
In the 13th century, Kamiyah bint Abi Bakr al-Siddiq (born c. 1220 CE) was a revered Sufi mystic and spiritual leader in Persia. Her teachings and writings on the mystical aspects of Islam continue to be studied and revered by Sufi orders to this day.
During the Ottoman Empire, the name Kamiyah was particularly popular among the ruling elite. One notable figure was Kamiyah Sultan (born c. 1540 CE), the daughter of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She was renowned for her patronage of the arts and her support for the construction of mosques and other architectural marvels.
In more recent times, Kamiyah Mobley (born July 10, 1998) made headlines after being abducted as a newborn from a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised under a different name until her true identity was discovered 18 years later.
People
Kamiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamiyah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kamiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,073 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamiyah 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 67,564 US residents.
Is Kamiyah a common name?
We classify Kamiyah as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,116 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamiyah was 2020, when 414 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamiyah is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamiyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,532 people with the name Kamiyah, or 0.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,369 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 Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamiyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,531 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kamiyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamiyah is Black at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Kamiyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamiyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (2,112 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 Kamiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamiyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah 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 Kamiyah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.