Yahir
A masculine Arabic name meaning "shining" or "bright."
Name Census estimates that about 12,055 living Americans carry the first name Yahir. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yahir today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yahir births was 2003 (1,287 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yahir. 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.
Key insights
- • Yahir is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,433 Americans
Peak year
2003
1,287 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#764
Tracked since 1992
Census
Yahir in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,610 people with the first name Yahir, which placed it at #2,724 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
#2,724
National first-name rank
People counted
8.6K
8,610 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yahir
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yahir is Hispanic at 97.9%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Black (0.5%). 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 Yahir 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 Yahir at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.9% · 8,430
- White1.2% · 107
- Black or African American0.5% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 10
- Two or more races0.1% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Yahir
Out of the 12,174 babies given the name Yahir since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Yahir as a male name
- Ranked #764 in 2024
- 332 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (1,274 births)
Yahir as a female name
- Ranked #19,095 in 2014
- 5 female births in 2014
- Peak: 2003 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yahir appears almost entirely male. Of the 8,608 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Yahir: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yahir from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6,335 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yahir 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 Yahir during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yahirs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Yahir, while Kentucky, Delaware, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 303 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yahir
The name Yahir originates from the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "Yahir," which means "he enlightens" or "he shines." The name can be traced back to biblical times, as it appears in the Old Testament of the Bible.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yahir can be found in the Book of Numbers, where it is mentioned as the name of a son of Manasseh, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This reference dates back to around the 13th century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name Yahir was occasionally used among Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East. One notable figure from this period was Yahir ben Shlomo, a Jewish scholar and physician who lived in Spain in the 12th century CE.
The name Yahir gained wider recognition during the Renaissance period, particularly in Italy. One famous bearer of the name was Yahir Pinto Delgado, a Jewish philosopher and poet who lived in Venice in the 16th century. His work contributed significantly to the intellectual and cultural climate of the time.
In more recent history, the name Yahir has been used across various cultures and regions, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East. One notable figure was Yahir Oviedo, a Mexican singer and actor who rose to fame in the early 2000s. He was born in 1983 and has released several successful albums and appeared in various television shows and films.
Another prominent individual with the name Yahir was Yahir Qahtan, an Iraqi politician and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party. He played a significant role in the Kurdish struggle for autonomy in Iraq and was actively involved in the region's political landscape until his death in 2019.
While the name Yahir may not be as common as some other names, it has a rich history and cultural significance, particularly in the Jewish and Middle Eastern traditions. Its meaning of "he enlightens" or "he shines" contributes to its enduring appeal and usage over the centuries.
People
Yahir + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yahir 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
Yahir: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yahir?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,055 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yahir 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 28,433 US residents.
Is Yahir a common name?
We classify Yahir as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,174 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yahir most popular?
The single biggest year for Yahir was 2003, when 1,287 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yahir is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yahir in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,610 people with the name Yahir, or 2.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,724 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 Yahir 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 Yahir?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yahir appears almost entirely male. Of the 8,608 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Yahir?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yahir is Hispanic at 97.9%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Black (0.5%). 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 Yahir most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yahir in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.9% (8,430 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 Yahir in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yahir a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Yahir 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 Yahir still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yahir 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 Yahir 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 share the name Yahir?
Want to know how many people have the name Yahir? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.