Asiyah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "creation" or "work".
Name Census estimates that about 1,802 living Americans carry the first name Asiyah. It is a predominantly female name (91.4% of registrations). The average person named Asiyah today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Asiyah births was 2023 (119 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Asiyah. 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 Asiyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Asiyah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 190,208 Americans
Peak year
2023
119 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,080
Tracked since 1994
Census
Asiyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,065 people with the first name Asiyah, which placed it at #11,867 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
#11,867
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,065 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
64.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Asiyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asiyah is Black at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.0%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Asiyah 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 Asiyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American64.6% · 688
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.0% · 128
- Two or more races9.1% · 97
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 80
- White5.8% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Asiyah
Asiyah leans heavily female at 91.4% of total registrations, but 156 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Asiyah as a male name
- Ranked #4,886 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (20 births)
Asiyah as a female name
- Ranked #2,080 in 2024
- 92 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (99 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Asiyah leans strongly female. 998 people counted with this name were female (94.6%), compared with 57 male bearers (5.4%).
Popularity
Asiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Asiyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 826 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Asiyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Asiyah 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 Asiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Asiyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York recorded the most babies named Asiyah, while South Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 52 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Asiyah
The name Asiyah has its roots in the Arabic language and is derived from the word "asiyah," which means "disobedient" or "rebellious." This name is believed to have originated in the Middle East during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century CE.
The earliest recorded use of the name Asiyah can be found in ancient Islamic texts and historical records. It is mentioned in the Qur'an as the name of the wife of Pharaoh, who is portrayed as a righteous woman and a believer in the one true God, despite her husband's disbelief.
One of the most famous historical figures to bear the name Asiyah was Asiyah bint Muzahim (born around 610 CE), a woman from the tribe of Banu Najjar in Medina. She was one of the first women to convert to Islam and was known for her devotion to the faith.
Another notable Asiyah from history was Asiyah al-Baghdadiyah (born around 944 CE), a renowned scholar and poet from Baghdad, Iraq. She was celebrated for her expertise in various fields, including literature, theology, and jurisprudence.
In the 12th century, Asiyah bint al-Majdub (born around 1150 CE) was a respected Sufi mystic and spiritual teacher from Damascus, Syria. She is remembered for her wisdom and her contributions to the development of Sufism.
Asiyah al-Dimashqiyah (born around 1230 CE) was a notable physician and scholar from Damascus. She was highly regarded for her knowledge of medicine and her contributions to the field of medical literature.
Asiyah Khanum (born around 1556 CE) was a prominent figure in the Mughal Empire of India. She was the wife of Emperor Akbar and played a significant role in the cultural and artistic developments of the Mughal court.
These are just a few examples of the many historical figures who have borne the name Asiyah throughout the centuries, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and meaning.
People
Asiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Asiyah 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
Asiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Asiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,802 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Asiyah 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 190,208 US residents.
Is Asiyah a common name?
We classify Asiyah as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,819 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Asiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Asiyah was 2023, when 119 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Asiyah 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 Asiyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,065 people with the name Asiyah, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,867 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 Asiyah 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 Asiyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Asiyah leans strongly female. 998 people counted with this name were female (94.6%), compared with 57 male bearers (5.4%). 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 Asiyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Asiyah is Black at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.0%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Asiyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Asiyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.6% (688 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 Asiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Asiyah a female name?
Yes, 91.4% of people registered as Asiyah 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 Asiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Asiyah 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 Asiyah 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 Asiyah?
Want to know how many Americans are named Asiyah? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.