Zayda
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "increase" or "increase in prosperity".
Name Census estimates that about 2,218 living Americans carry the first name Zayda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zayda today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zayda births was 2020 (108 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zayda. 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 Zayda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zayda is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 154,533 Americans
Peak year
2020
108 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,592
Tracked since 1956
Census
Zayda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,133 people with the first name Zayda, which placed it at #7,222 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
#7,222
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,133 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
55.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zayda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zayda is Hispanic at 55.3%. The next largest groups are White (23.3%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Zayda 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 Zayda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino55.3% · 1,180
- White23.3% · 498
- Black or African American11.3% · 241
- Two or more races6.7% · 142
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 14
Popularity
Zayda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zayda from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 915 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zayda remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zayda 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 Zayda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zaydas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Zayda, while Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zayda
The name Zayda has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "zaid," which means "increase" or "abundance." The name was particularly popular in the Middle East and North Africa during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zayda can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned as the name of a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. This association with Islamic scripture and tradition likely contributed to its widespread use among Muslim communities.
During the 8th century, a prominent Islamic scholar and poet named Zayda bin Ali bin Husayn al-Alawi lived in present-day Iraq. He was renowned for his contributions to Arabic literature and his expertise in religious studies.
In the 11th century, Zayda bint al-Muʿtadid was a notable princess and poet from the Abbasid caliphate, known for her influential works and her patronage of the arts.
Zayda al-Rumi was a renowned 12th-century Sufi mystic and scholar from Konya, in present-day Turkey. Her writings and teachings on Islamic spirituality were widely influential during her lifetime and continue to be studied today.
In more recent history, Zayda Peña Arjona was a Mexican actress and singer who gained popularity in the mid-20th century for her performances in various films and television shows.
While the name Zayda has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic tradition, it has also been adopted and used in various cultures and communities around the world, often with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation.
People
Zayda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zayda 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
Zayda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zayda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,218 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zayda 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 154,533 US residents.
Is Zayda a common name?
We classify Zayda as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,246 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zayda most popular?
The single biggest year for Zayda was 2020, when 108 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zayda is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zayda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,133 people with the name Zayda, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,222 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 Zayda 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 Zayda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zayda appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,136 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 Zayda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zayda is Hispanic at 55.3%. The next largest groups are White (23.3%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Zayda most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Zayda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.3% (1,180 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 Zayda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zayda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zayda 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 Zayda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zayda 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 Zayda 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 Zayda?
Want to know how many Americans are named Zayda? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.