Hedaya
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "guidance" or "wisdom".
Name Census estimates that about 90 living Americans carry the first name Hedaya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hedaya today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hedaya births was 1998 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hedaya. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hedaya. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
90
~ 1 in 3,808,382 Americans
Peak year
1998
9 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,606
Tracked since 1998
Popularity
Hedaya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hedaya 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 36 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hedaya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hedaya 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 Hedaya 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 Hedaya
The name Hedaya is derived from the Arabic word "هدايه" (hidāyah), which means "guidance" or "direction." It originates from the Arabic root word "هدى" (hada), which means "to guide" or "to lead." The name can be traced back to the early Islamic period, around the 7th century CE, when Arabic was the primary language of the region.
Hedaya has significant religious and cultural connotations in the Islamic tradition. It is often associated with the concept of divine guidance, as mentioned in the Quran and other Islamic texts. The name may have been given to individuals with the hope that they would be guided towards righteousness and truth.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hedaya can be found in the historical records of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled a vast empire from the 8th to the 13th century CE. During this period, several notable individuals bore the name Hedaya, including scholars, poets, and religious figures.
One such individual was Hedaya al-Baghdadi, a renowned female poet who lived in Baghdad during the 9th century CE. She was celebrated for her mastery of Arabic literature and her contributions to the cultural renaissance of the Abbasid era.
Another notable figure was Hedaya al-Andalusi, a scholar and mathematician from Cordoba, Spain, who lived in the 11th century CE. He made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and is remembered for his writings on geometry and algebra.
In the 12th century CE, a prominent Islamic scholar known as Hedaya al-Marghinani authored a influential book on Islamic jurisprudence called "Al-Hidayah." This work became a seminal text in the Hanafi school of Islamic law and is still studied and referenced by legal scholars today.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled from the 14th to the 20th century CE, the name Hedaya gained further popularity. One notable figure was Hedaya Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Selim II, who lived in the 16th century CE and was known for her patronage of the arts and her charitable endeavors.
Another famous bearer of the name Hedaya was Hedaya Khan, a Muslim ruler and governor of the Mughal Empire in India during the 17th century CE. He was renowned for his military prowess and his contributions to the expansion of the Mughal territories.
These examples illustrate the rich history and cultural significance of the name Hedaya, which has been carried by notable individuals across various regions and time periods throughout the Islamic world.
People
Hedaya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hedaya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hedaya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hedaya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 90 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hedaya 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 3,808,382 US residents.
Is Hedaya a common name?
We classify Hedaya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 91 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hedaya most popular?
The single biggest year for Hedaya was 1998, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hedaya is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Hedaya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hedaya 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.
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.