Massiah
A variant of the name "Messiah," derived from the Hebrew meaning "anointed one."
Name Census estimates that about 1,467 living Americans carry the first name Massiah. It is a predominantly male name (93.7% of registrations). The average person named Massiah today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Massiah births was 2021 (124 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Massiah. 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
- • Massiah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 233,643 Americans
Peak year
2021
124 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,941
Tracked since 1999
Census
Massiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 756 people with the first name Massiah, which placed it at #15,268 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
#15,268
National first-name rank
People counted
756
756 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Massiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Massiah is Black at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.0%) and Two or More Races (7.1%). 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 Massiah 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 Massiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.4% · 593
- Hispanic or Latino13.0% · 98
- Two or more races7.1% · 54
- White0.9% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Massiah
Massiah leans heavily male at 93.7% of total registrations, but 93 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Massiah as a male name
- Ranked #1,941 in 2024
- 81 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (124 births)
Massiah as a female name
- Ranked #13,604 in 2017
- 7 female births in 2017
- Peak: 2008 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Massiah leans strongly male. 669 people counted with this name were male (88.8%), compared with 84 female bearers (11.2%).
Popularity
Massiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Massiah 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 791 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Massiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Massiah 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 Massiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Massiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Florida, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Massiah, while Wisconsin, Virginia, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Massiah
The given name Massiah has its origins in the ancient Aramaic language, which was widely spoken in the Middle East during the first millennium BC. It is derived from the Aramaic term "mashiah," which means "anointed one" or "chosen one." This name has strong religious connotations, particularly within the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The earliest known reference to the name Massiah can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it is used as a title for the anticipated messianic figure who would deliver the Jewish people from oppression and establish a new era of peace and prosperity. The word "Messiah" is an anglicized version of the Aramaic "mashiah."
One of the most notable figures associated with the name Massiah is Jesus Christ, who is revered as the Messiah in Christianity. According to the New Testament, he was born circa 5-4 BC in Bethlehem, and his teachings and ministry form the foundation of the Christian faith.
Another prominent individual with the name Massiah was Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676), a influential Jewish rabbi who proclaimed himself to be the long-awaited Messiah. His messianic claims gained significant support among Jewish communities but ultimately led to a major crisis of faith when he converted to Islam under Ottoman Turkish pressure.
In Islamic tradition, the name Massiah is sometimes used in reference to the concept of the Mahdi, a prophesied redeemer who will establish justice and peace on Earth. One figure associated with this belief is Muhammad al-Mahdi (born 869 AD), an Ismaili Shia Muslim who claimed to be the awaited Mahdi and established the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa.
Another notable individual with the name Massiah was Masih ad-Dajjal (c. 685-705 AD), a figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to be a false messiah or anti-Christ figure that will appear before the end of times. His name is derived from the Arabic term "al-Masih ad-Dajjal," which means "the false messiah, the deceiver."
Beyond religious contexts, the name Massiah has also been used by various individuals throughout history, although its usage has been relatively rare compared to other names with similar roots. One example is Massiah Haddad (1664-1721), a Lebanese poet and scholar who made significant contributions to Arabic literature.
People
Massiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Massiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Massiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Massiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,467 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Massiah 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 233,643 US residents.
Is Massiah a common name?
We classify Massiah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,478 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Massiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Massiah was 2021, when 124 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Massiah is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Massiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 756 people with the name Massiah, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,268 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 Massiah 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 Massiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Massiah leans strongly male. 669 people counted with this name were male (88.8%), compared with 84 female bearers (11.2%). 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 Massiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Massiah is Black at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.0%) and Two or More Races (7.1%). 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 Massiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Massiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (593 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 Massiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Massiah a male name?
Yes, 93.7% of people registered as Massiah in the SSA data are male. 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 Massiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Massiah 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 Massiah 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 Massiah?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.