Jaiyah
A variant of Jaia, a feminine name of uncertain origin meaning "victorious".
Name Census estimates that about 260 living Americans carry the first name Jaiyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jaiyah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaiyah births was 2021 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaiyah. 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 Jaiyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
260
~ 1 in 1,318,286 Americans
Peak year
2021
16 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,122
Tracked since 2001
Popularity
Jaiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaiyah 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 110 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jaiyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaiyah 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 Jaiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaiyahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaiyah
The name Jaiyah is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Jaiah, which is derived from the root word "yah" meaning "Yahweh" or "God". The name likely originated in ancient Israelite culture, although its precise origins are uncertain.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jaiah can be found in the Bible's Book of Ezra, which mentions a man named Jaiah who was among those who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity in the 5th century BCE. This suggests the name was in use among the ancient Hebrews as early as the 6th century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name appears to have been relatively uncommon, with few documented examples. However, in the 16th century, a Dutch Calvinist theologian named Jacobus Arminius, born in 1560, was given the Hebrew name Jaiah at birth, although he is better known by his Latin name.
One of the earliest notable individuals named Jaiyah was Jaiyah al-Munayyir, an 11th-century Arab philosopher and astronomer from Spain. He made important contributions to the development of astronomical instruments and the study of celestial mechanics.
Another historically significant figure was Jaiyah ibn Adi, a 10th-century Arab Christian philosopher and translator who played a key role in preserving and transmitting ancient Greek philosophical texts to the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age.
In more recent times, Jaiyah Sahib was an 18th-century Indian Sufi saint and spiritual leader who founded the Jaiyahiya order of Sufism in the region of Punjab. He is revered by followers for his teachings on mysticism and devotional practices.
While not an exhaustive list, these examples illustrate the rich historical and cultural significance of the name Jaiyah, which spans diverse regions, religions, and time periods, from ancient Israelite civilization to medieval Europe, the Islamic Golden Age, and the Sufi traditions of South Asia.
People
Jaiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaiyah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jaiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 260 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaiyah 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 1,318,286 US residents.
Is Jaiyah a common name?
We classify Jaiyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 263 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaiyah was 2021, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaiyah is about 13 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 Jaiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaiyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaiyah 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 Jaiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaiyah 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 Jaiyah 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 common is the name Jaiyah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.