Yahia
A masculine Arabic name meaning "to live" or "lively".
Name Census estimates that about 507 living Americans carry the first name Yahia. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yahia today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yahia births was 2016 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yahia. 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 Yahia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
507
~ 1 in 676,044 Americans
Peak year
2016
42 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,145
Tracked since 2000
Census
Yahia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 657 people with the first name Yahia, which placed it at #16,975 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
#16,975
National first-name rank
People counted
657
657 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yahia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yahia is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Yahia 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 Yahia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.1% · 526
- Black or African American8.7% · 57
- Two or more races5.2% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Yahia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yahia from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 268 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yahia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yahia 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 Yahia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yahias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Yahia, while New Jersey, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yahia
The name Yahia is derived from the Arabic name Yahya, which is the Arabic form of the Hebrew name Yohanan or John. This name has its origins in ancient Semitic languages and is a variant of the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious."
The name Yahya is mentioned in the Quran as the name of John the Baptist, a prophet who was a precursor to Jesus Christ in Christian beliefs. In the Quran, Yahya is described as a righteous prophet who was granted wisdom and knowledge as a child.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yahya can be found in ancient Arabic manuscripts and historical records from the 7th century AD. During this time, the name gained popularity among Muslims as a name for their sons, inspired by the Quranic references.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Yahia or its variants. One of the most famous was Yahia ibn Adi (893-974 AD), an Arab Christian philosopher and writer who lived in Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate. His works on logic, metaphysics, and theology were influential in the development of Arab and Islamic philosophy.
Another prominent figure was Yahia al-Nawawi (1233-1277 AD), a Sunni Islamic scholar and jurist from Damascus. He is renowned for his influential works on Islamic jurisprudence, particularly his compilation of hadith (prophetic traditions) known as Riyadh al-Salihin.
In the realm of science, Yahia ibn Ismail al-Ma'mun (786-833 AD) was a renowned Arab astronomer and mathematician who made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of celestial mechanics.
The name Yahia also graced notable figures in literature, such as Yahia ibn al-Mu'tazz (868-923 AD), an Abbasid prince and renowned poet who was celebrated for his mastery of Arabic poetry and his contributions to the development of literary criticism.
Another historical figure of note was Yahia ibn Yahya al-Laithi (718-803 AD), a prominent Arab grammarian and linguist from Basra, who made significant contributions to the study of Arabic grammar and syntax.
People
Yahia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yahia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yahia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yahia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 507 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yahia 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 676,044 US residents.
Is Yahia a common name?
We classify Yahia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 511 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yahia most popular?
The single biggest year for Yahia was 2016, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yahia is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yahia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 657 people with the name Yahia, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,975 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 Yahia 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 Yahia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yahia leans strongly male. 635 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 19 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Yahia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yahia is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Yahia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yahia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (526 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 Yahia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yahia a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yahia in the SSA data are male. 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 Yahia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yahia 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 Yahia 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 people are named Yahia?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.