Sumayya
A feminine Arabic name meaning "sublime" or "exalted".
Name Census estimates that about 372 living Americans carry the first name Sumayya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sumayya today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sumayya births was 2024 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sumayya. 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 Sumayya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
372
~ 1 in 921,383 Americans
Peak year
2024
36 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,096
Tracked since 1990
Census
Sumayya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 411 people with the first name Sumayya, which placed it at #23,711 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
#23,711
National first-name rank
People counted
411
411 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
56.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sumayya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sumayya is Asian/Pacific Islander at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and White (15.1%). 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 Sumayya 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 Sumayya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander56.0% · 230
- Black or African American18.0% · 74
- White15.1% · 62
- Two or more races8.5% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Sumayya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sumayya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 130 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sumayya 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 Sumayya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sumayyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Sumayya, while Illinois, California, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sumayya
The name Sumayya is of Arabic origin, deriving from the root word "samaa" meaning "elevated" or "sublime." It is believed to have emerged during the early days of Islam, around the 7th century CE, in the Arabian Peninsula.
Sumayya is a significant name in Islamic history, as it was borne by Sumayya bint Khabbat, one of the earliest reverts to Islam and a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. She is revered as the first martyr in Islam, having endured severe torture and ultimately being killed for her faith by the pagan Quraysh tribe in Mecca.
The name Sumayya gained prominence during the early Islamic era and has been used across various Muslim communities ever since. It is mentioned in several historical accounts and records, including the writings of early Islamic scholars and historians.
Among notable historical figures who bore the name Sumayya is Sumayya al-Muhtadiyah, a 12th-century Andalusian Muslim scholar and poet from Almeria, Spain. She was renowned for her expertise in various fields, including grammar, literature, and Quranic exegesis.
Another prominent figure was Sumayya bint al-Husayn, a 9th-century Abbasid princess and poet, known for her literary contributions and her influential role in the cultural life of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age.
In the 13th century, Sumayya bint al-Kamil was a renowned Ayyubid princess and patron of the arts and sciences, who supported the construction of important architectural landmarks, such as the Sumayya Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.
Sumayya bint al-Husayn, a 10th-century Samanid princess and scholar, was celebrated for her knowledge of hadith (the recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) and her contributions to the preservation of Islamic literature.
Throughout history, the name Sumayya has continued to be bestowed upon individuals across various Muslim communities, carrying a rich cultural and religious significance.
People
Sumayya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sumayya 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
Sumayya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sumayya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 372 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sumayya 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 921,383 US residents.
Is Sumayya a common name?
We classify Sumayya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 376 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sumayya most popular?
The single biggest year for Sumayya was 2024, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sumayya is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sumayya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 411 people with the name Sumayya, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,711 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 Sumayya 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 Sumayya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sumayya appears almost entirely female. Of the 410 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Sumayya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sumayya is Asian/Pacific Islander at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and White (15.1%). 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 Sumayya most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Sumayya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.0% (230 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 Sumayya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sumayya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sumayya 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 Sumayya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sumayya 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 Sumayya 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 share the name Sumayya?
You can see how many Americans are named Sumayya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.