Caya
A feminine name of possibly Indian origin potentially meaning "a bird".
Name Census estimates that about 189 living Americans carry the first name Caya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Caya today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caya births was 2004 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caya. 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 Caya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
189
~ 1 in 1,813,515 Americans
Peak year
2004
18 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,773
Tracked since 1992
Census
Caya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 218 people with the first name Caya, which placed it at #36,419 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
#36,419
National first-name rank
People counted
218
218 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Caya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caya is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (13.8%). 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 Caya 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 Caya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.0% · 96
- Black or African American30.3% · 66
- Hispanic or Latino13.8% · 30
- Two or more races7.8% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 3
Popularity
Caya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 94 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Caya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Caya 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 Caya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Caya
The given name Caya has its origins in ancient Germanic languages, with roots that can be traced back to the 5th century. It is derived from the Old High German word "gawi," which means "region" or "district." This suggests that the name may have initially been used to denote someone's place of origin or residence.
In the Early Middle Ages, the name Caya was primarily found among the Germanic tribes inhabiting central and western Europe, such as the Franks, Saxons, and Alemanni. Its earliest recorded use can be found in various medieval chronicles and administrative records from the 8th and 9th centuries.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Caya was a Frankish noblewoman who lived in the 7th century. She was the wife of Adalric, Duke of Alsace, and is mentioned in the Vita Sancti Deicoli, a hagiography written in the late 7th or early 8th century.
Another notable bearer of the name was Caya of Lotharingia, a countess who lived in the 10th century. She was the daughter of Count Wigeric of Lotharingia and played a significant role in the political affairs of the region during her lifetime.
In the 12th century, a German abbess named Caya is recorded as the leader of the Benedictine convent in Gandersheim, Lower Saxony. She is mentioned in several contemporary chronicles for her contributions to the convent's governance and spiritual life.
During the High Middle Ages, the name Caya also appeared in various literary works, such as the Nibelungenlied, an epic poem from the 13th century. Here, Caya is mentioned as a minor character, a maidservant to the protagonist Kriemhild.
In the 14th century, a woman named Caya von Tannenberg is recorded as a German mystic and visionary. She is known for her alleged visions and prophecies, which were documented in a collection of writings titled the "Revelationes Cayae de Tannenberg."
While the name Caya has fallen out of widespread use in modern times, it still holds historical significance as a reminder of its Germanic roots and the individuals who bore this name throughout the centuries.
People
Caya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caya 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
Caya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 189 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caya 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 1,813,515 US residents.
Is Caya a common name?
We classify Caya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 192 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caya most popular?
The single biggest year for Caya was 2004, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caya is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Caya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 218 people with the name Caya, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,419 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 Caya 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 Caya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Caya leans strongly female. 218 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 5 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Caya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caya is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (13.8%). 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 Caya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Caya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.0% (96 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 Caya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Caya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Caya 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 Caya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Caya 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 Caya 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 common is the name Caya?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.