Seid
A masculine Arabic name meaning "fortunate" or "blessed".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Seid. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Seid today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Seid births was 2005 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Seid. 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 Seid with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Seid. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2005
5 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2005 SSA rank
#13,026
Tracked since 2005
Census
Seid in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 269 people with the first name Seid, which placed it at #31,704 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
#31,704
National first-name rank
People counted
269
269 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Seid
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Seid is Black at 55.0%. The next largest groups are White (36.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Seid 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 Seid at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American55.0% · 148
- White36.1% · 97
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 11
- Two or more races4.1% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
Popularity
Seid: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Seid 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 Seid during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Seid
The given name Seid has its origins in the Arabic language. The name is derived from the word "sayyid," which means "lord" or "master." It is believed to have been in use since the early Islamic era, which began in the 7th century AD.
Seid was a popular name among Arabic-speaking communities, particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa. It was often given to boys as a sign of respect and honor, reflecting the parents' hope that their child would grow up to be a leader or a person of authority.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Seid can be found in historical accounts from the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled over a vast territory spanning from Spain to Central Asia between the 7th and 8th centuries AD. Several notable figures from this time period bore the name Seid, including Seid ibn Uthman, a prominent military commander and governor during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I.
In later centuries, the name Seid continued to be used across the Islamic world, with several prominent individuals bearing this name. One notable example is Seid al-Din al-Qunawi, a 13th-century Sufi mystic and philosopher who was a disciple of the renowned Ibn Arabi. Another is Seid Ahmed of Socotra, a 16th-century Islamic scholar and saint who played a significant role in the spread of Islam in the Indian Ocean region.
Over time, the name Seid also found its way into other cultures and languages, particularly those influenced by Arabic and Islamic traditions. For instance, in the Turkish language, the name is spelled as "Said," and it has been used by several notable figures throughout history, such as Said Nursi, a 20th-century Islamic scholar and theologian.
Other notable individuals named Seid include Seid Mustafa Rashid, a 19th-century Egyptian scholar and reformer, Seid ibn Sultan, a 15th-century Moroccan ruler and founder of the Saadi dynasty, and Seid Qutb, a 20th-century Egyptian author and Islamic theorist who was a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
People
Seid + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Seid as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Seid: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Seid?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Seid 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Seid a common name?
We classify Seid as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Seid most popular?
The single biggest year for Seid was 2005, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Seid 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 Seid in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 269 people with the name Seid, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,704 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 Seid 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 Seid?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Seid leans strongly male. 264 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 6 female 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 Seid?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Seid is Black at 55.0%. The next largest groups are White (36.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Seid most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Seid in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (148 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 Seid in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Seid a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Seid 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 Seid still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Seid 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 Seid 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 Seid?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Seid at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.