Caiya
A feminine name of unknown origin with a suggested meaning of life.
Name Census estimates that about 428 living Americans carry the first name Caiya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Caiya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caiya births was 2018 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caiya. 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 Caiya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
428
~ 1 in 800,828 Americans
Peak year
2018
25 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,636
Tracked since 1998
Census
Caiya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 316 people with the first name Caiya, which placed it at #28,429 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
#28,429
National first-name rank
People counted
316
316 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
38.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Caiya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caiya is Black at 38.0%. The next largest groups are White (28.2%) and Two or More Races (18.7%). 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 Caiya 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 Caiya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American38.0% · 120
- White28.2% · 89
- Two or more races18.7% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 6
Popularity
Caiya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caiya 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 168 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Caiya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Caiya 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 Caiya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Caiyas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Caiya
The name Caiya is believed to have its origins in the Sanskrit language, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "cāya," which means "shadow" or "protection." The name is thought to have been used in ancient India, particularly in the northern regions where Sanskrit was widely spoken.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Caiya can be found in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, which is believed to have been composed between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE. In the epic, Caiya is mentioned as the name of a minor character, a warrior from the kingdom of Kuru.
During the medieval period, the name Caiya gained popularity among certain Hindu communities in India. One notable historical figure with this name was Caiya Samadhi, a 12th-century Hindu mystic and poet from the region of Rajasthan. Samadhi's spiritual compositions, known as "Caiya Bani," were widely celebrated and contributed to the spread of the name.
In the 16th century, a Rajput ruler named Caiya Singh played a significant role in the resistance against the Mughal Empire. He led his forces in several battles, earning a reputation as a brave and skilled warrior. This association with a prominent military figure may have further popularized the name among certain warrior clans in northern India.
Another historical figure worth mentioning is Caiya Devi, a 17th-century queen and patron of the arts from the Kingdom of Mysore. Caiya Devi was known for her support of literature, music, and dance, and her patronage helped to preserve and promote various cultural traditions.
In the 19th century, Caiya Narain, a renowned scholar and translator from Bengal, made significant contributions to the study of Sanskrit literature. His translations of ancient Hindu texts into English helped to make these works accessible to a wider audience, further spreading awareness of the name Caiya.
While the name Caiya has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Hindu traditions, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and communities around the world, often with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation. However, its historical origins can be traced back to the rich cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent.
People
Caiya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caiya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Caiya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caiya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 428 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caiya 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 800,828 US residents.
Is Caiya a common name?
We classify Caiya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 433 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caiya most popular?
The single biggest year for Caiya was 2018, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caiya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Caiya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 316 people with the name Caiya, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,429 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 Caiya 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 Caiya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Caiya appears almost entirely female. Of the 316 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 Caiya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caiya is Black at 38.0%. The next largest groups are White (28.2%) and Two or More Races (18.7%). 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 Caiya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Caiya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.0% (120 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 Caiya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Caiya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Caiya 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 Caiya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Caiya 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 Caiya 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 called Caiya?
You can see how many Americans are named Caiya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.