Ziyan
An Arabic masculine name meaning "brightness" or "radiance".
Name Census estimates that about 415 living Americans carry the first name Ziyan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 59.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Ziyan today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ziyan births was 2012 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ziyan. 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 Ziyan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
415
~ 1 in 825,914 Americans
Peak year
2012
34 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,943
Tracked since 2001
Census
Ziyan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 718 people with the first name Ziyan, which placed it at #15,879 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
#15,879
National first-name rank
People counted
718
718 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ziyan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and White (4.2%). 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 Ziyan 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 Ziyan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander67.8% · 487
- Black or African American23.8% · 171
- White4.2% · 30
- Two or more races2.5% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Ziyan
Ziyan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 418 total registrations, 247 (59.1%) were male and 171 (40.9%) were female.
Ziyan as a male name
- Ranked #8,943 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (18 births)
Ziyan as a female name
- Ranked #15,224 in 2021
- 6 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2012 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziyan on both sides of the split. Of the 718 people counted with this name, 296 were male (41.2%) and 422 were female (58.8%).
Popularity
Ziyan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ziyan 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 253 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ziyan 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 Ziyan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ziyans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ziyan
The name Ziyan has its origins in the Persian language, originating during the Middle Ages in regions that are now part of modern-day Iran and Central Asia. The name is derived from the Persian word "ziyan," which means "loss" or "damage." It is believed to have been initially used as a surname or a descriptive name.
In the 11th century, the name Ziyan gained prominence when it was adopted by the Zirid dynasty, a Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of North Africa and Spain. The founder of the dynasty, Ziri ibn Manad, took the name al-Ziyan, which later became a common name among his descendants.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Ziyan can be found in the writings of the 12th-century Arab historian and philosopher, Ibn Khaldun. He mentioned the Zirid dynasty and its rulers, including Ziyan ibn Manuza, who ruled the Kingdom of Granada in the 12th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ziyan. One of the most famous was Ziyan al-Attar, a 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet from Persia, born around 1199 and died in 1262. His poetry and teachings were widely influential in the Persian-speaking world.
Another notable figure was Ziyan al-Din Barani, a 14th-century Muslim scholar and historian from Delhi, India, born around 1285 and died in 1357. He is known for his historical works, including the "Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi," which documented the reign of the Delhi Sultanate ruler, Firuz Shah Tughluq.
In the 15th century, Ziyan ibn Uthman was a prominent Berber ruler of the Zayyanid dynasty, which ruled parts of modern-day Algeria and Morocco. He is known for his military campaigns against the Portuguese and his patronage of arts and architecture.
The name Ziyan also appeared in Ottoman Turkish literature, with Ziyan Pasha, a 16th-century Ottoman statesman and poet, born around 1515 and died in 1580. He served as the governor of several provinces and was renowned for his poetic works.
Another notable figure was Ziyan al-Din Nakhshabi, a 17th-century Sufi mystic and scholar from Central Asia, born around 1590 and died in 1668. He was known for his spiritual teachings and wrote several influential works on Sufism.
People
Ziyan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ziyan 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
Ziyan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ziyan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 415 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ziyan 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 825,914 US residents.
Is Ziyan a common name?
We classify Ziyan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 418 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ziyan most popular?
The single biggest year for Ziyan was 2012, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ziyan is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ziyan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 718 people with the name Ziyan, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,879 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 Ziyan 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 Ziyan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziyan on both sides of the split. Of the 718 people counted with this name, 296 were male (41.2%) and 422 were female (58.8%). 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 Ziyan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and White (4.2%). 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 Ziyan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ziyan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (487 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 Ziyan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ziyan a male name?
Yes, 59.1% of people registered as Ziyan 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 Ziyan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ziyan 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 Ziyan 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 Ziyan?
Find out how many people share the name Ziyan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.