Adayah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "replacement gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 297 living Americans carry the first name Adayah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Adayah today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Adayah births was 2020 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Adayah. 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
297
~ 1 in 1,154,055 Americans
Peak year
2020
22 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,373
Tracked since 2000
Popularity
Adayah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Adayah 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 133 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Adayah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Adayah 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 Adayah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Adayahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Adayah
The name Adayah has its origins in the Hebrew language, and is believed to have been in use since ancient times. The name is a combination of two Hebrew words: "adah" meaning "to pass on" or "to advance," and "Yah," which is a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh."
In its earliest form, the name was likely spelled as "Adaiah" or "Adayahu." The name is found in several ancient Hebrew texts, including the Old Testament of the Bible, where it appears as the name of a Levite priest during the time of King David, around the 10th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Adayah is found in the Book of Ezra, which mentions an Israelite man named Adayah who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity in the 5th century BCE. Another early reference is found in the Book of Nehemiah, which lists an Adayah as one of the signers of the covenant with God during the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls in the same period.
Throughout history, the name Adayah has been borne by several notable individuals. In the 1st century CE, Adayah ben Ahavah was a well-known Jewish scholar and Talmudic sage. In the 11th century, Adayah ben Saadia was a prominent Jewish philosopher and commentator on the Torah, who lived in Yemen.
During the Middle Ages, Adayah was a relatively common name among Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East. One notable bearer was Adayah ben Abraham, a 13th-century Spanish-Jewish poet and philosopher.
In the 17th century, Adayah Hayyun was a prominent Jewish scholar and kabbalist from Yemen. And in the 19th century, Adayah Shochet was a Russian-Jewish educator and advocate for women's education, who lived from 1832 to 1892.
While the name Adayah has ancient roots and a rich history, it has remained relatively rare throughout most of the world, with its usage primarily confined to Jewish communities until more recent times.
People
Adayah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Adayah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Adayah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Adayah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 297 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Adayah 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 1,154,055 US residents.
Is Adayah a common name?
We classify Adayah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 300 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Adayah most popular?
The single biggest year for Adayah was 2020, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Adayah is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Adayah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Adayah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Adayah 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 Adayah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Adayah 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 Adayah 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Adayah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.