Zakayla
A feminine name of American origin, possibly meaning "beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 390 living Americans carry the first name Zakayla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zakayla today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zakayla births was 2006 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zakayla. 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.
People living today
390
~ 1 in 878,857 Americans
Peak year
2006
36 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2022 SSA rank
#17,699
Tracked since 1999
Census
Zakayla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 286 people with the first name Zakayla, which placed it at #30,451 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
#30,451
National first-name rank
People counted
286
286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zakayla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zakayla is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Zakayla 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 Zakayla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.2% · 255
- Two or more races4.5% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 11
- White2.1% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Popularity
Zakayla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zakayla 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 204 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
Zakayla 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 Zakayla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zakaylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Zakayla, while North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zakayla
The name Zakayla is a relatively modern invention, with no clear origins or ties to a specific language, culture, or time period. It appears to be a creative spelling variation or combination of more established names such as Zakia, Zakariya, or Kayla.
While the name itself does not have a documented historical existence, some of its potential root names have interesting origins worth exploring. Zakia, for instance, is an Arabic name meaning "pure" or "innocent," derived from the word "zakah," which refers to the Islamic practice of giving alms or charity. Zakariya, on the other hand, is a Hebrew name meaning "God has remembered," and is the name of a prophet in both the Bible and the Quran.
The name Kayla, which may have influenced the spelling of Zakayla, has its roots in the Irish Gaelic name Cailín, meaning "girl" or "maiden." It gained popularity in the United States in the late 20th century as a feminine variation of the name Kyle.
Due to its modern nature, there are no prominent historical figures specifically associated with the name Zakayla. However, there are notable individuals who share similar-sounding names or potential root names. One such person is Zakia Khudadadi, an Afghan taekwondo athlete who made history by becoming the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Summer Olympics in 2004.
Another notable figure is Zakariya al-Qazwini, a renowned 13th-century Arab geographer and writer who authored the influential work "Cosmography." In the realm of religious history, Zechariah (or Zakariya) was a Hebrew prophet in the Old Testament, and is also mentioned in the Quran as the father of John the Baptist.
While the name Zakayla itself does not have a rich historical legacy, it draws upon the cultural and linguistic influences of various regions and traditions, reflecting the modern trend of creating unique and personalized names by blending or modifying existing ones.
People
Zakayla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zakayla as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zakayla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zakayla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 390 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zakayla 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 878,857 US residents.
Is Zakayla a common name?
We classify Zakayla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 394 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zakayla most popular?
The single biggest year for Zakayla was 2006, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zakayla is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zakayla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 286 people with the name Zakayla, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,451 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 Zakayla 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 Zakayla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zakayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 285 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Zakayla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zakayla is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Zakayla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zakayla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.2% (255 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 Zakayla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zakayla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zakayla 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 Zakayla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zakayla 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 Zakayla 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 have Zakayla as a first name?
See how many people share the name Zakayla on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.