Mekhia
A feminine Arabic name meaning "respectable" or "noble lady".
Name Census estimates that about 243 living Americans carry the first name Mekhia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mekhia today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mekhia births was 2004 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mekhia. 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.
People living today
243
~ 1 in 1,410,512 Americans
Peak year
2004
43 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2023 SSA rank
#16,782
Tracked since 1998
Census
Mekhia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 234 people with the first name Mekhia, which placed it at #34,758 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
#34,758
National first-name rank
People counted
234
234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mekhia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mekhia is Black at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.7%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Mekhia 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 Mekhia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.6% · 184
- Two or more races10.7% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 11
- White3.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Popularity
Mekhia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mekhia 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 184 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mekhia 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 Mekhia 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 Mekhia
The name Mekhia is believed to have its origins in ancient Sanskrit, one of the earliest known Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "mekhala," which means "girdle" or "belt," referring to a decorative waistband worn by women.
In Hindu mythology, the girdle or waistband held significant symbolic meaning, representing the bond between husband and wife, as well as the continuity of life. The name Mekhia may have been given to girls as a way to invoke these auspicious associations.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, where a minor character named Mekhia is mentioned. This suggests that the name has been in use for several centuries, possibly dating back to the 4th century BCE or even earlier.
Throughout history, the name Mekhia has been borne by several notable individuals. In the 7th century CE, there was a Sanskrit scholar named Mekhia Pandita, who was renowned for her contributions to the study of ancient Hindu texts and philosophy.
During the 12th century, a powerful queen named Mekhia ruled over the Chahamana dynasty in the region of present-day Rajasthan, India. She was known for her military prowess and her efforts to expand the kingdom's territories.
In the 16th century, a notable poet and mystic named Mekhia Bai lived in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Her devotional poetry, written in the Braj Bhasha dialect, is still widely celebrated and studied today.
Another historical figure with the name Mekhia was a 19th-century social reformer from Bengal, India, who advocated for women's education and fought against the practice of child marriage.
In more recent times, there was a renowned classical dancer named Mekhia Naidu, who was born in 1923 and played a significant role in reviving and popularizing the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.
People
Mekhia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mekhia 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
Mekhia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mekhia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 243 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mekhia 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 1,410,512 US residents.
Is Mekhia a common name?
We classify Mekhia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 247 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mekhia most popular?
The single biggest year for Mekhia was 2004, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mekhia is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mekhia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 234 people with the name Mekhia, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,758 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 Mekhia 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 Mekhia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mekhia leans strongly female. 210 people counted with this name were female (92.9%), compared with 16 male bearers (7.1%). 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 Mekhia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mekhia is Black at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.7%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Mekhia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mekhia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.6% (184 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 Mekhia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mekhia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mekhia 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 Mekhia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mekhia 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 Mekhia 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 Americans are named Mekhia?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Mekhia at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.