Soraya
A feminine name of Persian origin meaning "essence" or "princess".
Name Census estimates that about 6,303 living Americans carry the first name Soraya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Soraya today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Soraya births was 2024 (290 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Soraya. 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 Soraya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.3K
~ 1 in 54,380 Americans
Peak year
2024
290 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#913
Tracked since 1955
Census
Soraya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,622 people with the first name Soraya, which placed it at #2,956 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
#2,956
National first-name rank
People counted
7.6K
7,622 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
47.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Soraya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soraya is Hispanic at 47.0%. The next largest groups are White (25.9%) and Black (14.5%). 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 Soraya 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 Soraya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino47.0% · 3,582
- White25.9% · 1,973
- Black or African American14.5% · 1,106
- Two or more races7.6% · 578
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 345
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 38
Popularity
Soraya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Soraya from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,963 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Soraya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Soraya 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 Soraya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sorayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Soraya, while South Carolina, New Mexico, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 155 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Soraya
Soraya is a Persian name that originated in Iran. It is derived from the Persian word "sorayah" which means "princess" or "woman of high rank". The name was commonly used among the nobility and royalty of ancient Persia.
The earliest recorded use of the name Soraya dates back to the 6th century AD, during the Sassanid Empire in Persia. It was a popular name among the aristocratic families of that era, and was often given to daughters born into the royal lineage.
In Islamic literature, Soraya is mentioned in the Quran as one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad. This association with the Islamic tradition further solidified the name's significance in the Persian culture.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Soraya was Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, the second wife of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She was born in 1932 and was a member of the prestigious Bakhtiari tribe. Her marriage to the Shah in 1951 made her the Queen of Iran until their divorce in 1958.
Another famous Soraya was Soraya Tarzi, an Afghan writer, and feminist activist who lived from 1897 to 1968. She played a significant role in promoting women's rights and education in Afghanistan during the early 20th century.
In the realm of music, Soraya Arnelas is a Spanish singer and songwriter born in 1982. She rose to fame as a member of the popular Spanish girl group Tres POR4 and later pursued a successful solo career.
Soraya Jiménez is a Mexican weightlifter who won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She was born in 1985 and is considered one of the most accomplished weightlifters in Mexico's history.
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is an American journalist and foreign correspondent born in 1967. She has reported extensively on the Middle East and has covered major events such as the Iraq War and the Arab Spring.
People
Soraya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Soraya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Soraya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Soraya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,303 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Soraya 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 54,380 US residents.
Is Soraya a common name?
We classify Soraya as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,496 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Soraya most popular?
The single biggest year for Soraya was 2024, when 290 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Soraya is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Soraya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,622 people with the name Soraya, or 2.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,956 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 Soraya 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 Soraya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Soraya appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,619 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 Soraya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Soraya is Hispanic at 47.0%. The next largest groups are White (25.9%) and Black (14.5%). 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 Soraya most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Soraya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.0% (3,582 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 Soraya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Soraya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Soraya 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 Soraya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Soraya 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 Soraya 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 Soraya?
See how many people share the name Soraya on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.