Vaida
An ancient Lithuanian feminine name of Old Prussian origin meaning "beauty".
Name Census estimates that about 869 living Americans carry the first name Vaida. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vaida today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vaida births was 2015 (111 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vaida. 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 Vaida with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
869
~ 1 in 394,424 Americans
Peak year
2015
111 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,742
Tracked since 1926
Census
Vaida in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 779 people with the first name Vaida, which placed it at #14,932 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
#14,932
National first-name rank
People counted
779
779 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vaida
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vaida is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Vaida 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 Vaida at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.3% · 618
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 80
- Two or more races4.5% · 35
- Black or African American3.7% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 6
Popularity
Vaida: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vaida from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 571 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Vaida remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vaida 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 Vaida during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vaidas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Pennsylvania, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Vaida, while Kansas, Illinois, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vaida
The name Vaida has its origins in Lithuanian, a Baltic language spoken primarily in Lithuania. It is derived from the Lithuanian word "vaidila," which referred to a pagan priest or soothsayer in ancient Baltic cultures. The name can be traced back to the 13th century and the era of Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Vaida was a common name among the nobility and ruling classes in Lithuania during the medieval period. It is believed to have been borne by several members of the Gediminid dynasty, which ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th to the 16th century. However, specific historical figures with this name from that time are not well documented.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vaida can be found in the 16th-century work "Chronica Prussiae" by Caspar Schütz, which mentions a Lithuanian nobleman named Vaida Gedgaudas from the 15th century. Another notable historical figure with this name was Vaida Butrimas, a Lithuanian-Polish military commander who fought against the Teutonic Knights in the early 16th century.
In more recent history, Vaida Žilinskaitė (1938-2018) was a prominent Lithuanian artist and painter known for her abstract expressionist works. Vaida Jurkonytė (born 1983) is a Lithuanian basketball player who has represented Lithuania in several international competitions.
Other notable individuals with the name Vaida include Vaida Sabeckytė (born 1960), a Lithuanian politician and former Minister of Culture; Vaida Čeplinskas (born 1985), a Lithuanian professional basketball player; and Vaida Kalinkaitė-Butkienė (born 1968), a Lithuanian singer and actress.
While the name Vaida has its roots in ancient Lithuanian culture and history, it continues to be a popular name in Lithuania and among Lithuanian communities around the world. Its connection to the role of pagan priests and soothsayers in Baltic mythology adds a unique cultural significance to this name.
People
Vaida + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vaida as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vaida: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vaida?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 869 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vaida 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 394,424 US residents.
Is Vaida a common name?
We classify Vaida as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 881 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vaida most popular?
The single biggest year for Vaida was 2015, when 111 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vaida 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 Vaida in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 779 people with the name Vaida, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,932 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 Vaida 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 Vaida?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vaida appears almost entirely female. Of the 777 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Vaida?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vaida is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Vaida most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vaida in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.3% (618 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 Vaida in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vaida a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vaida 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 Vaida still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vaida 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 Vaida 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 Vaida?
See how many Americans are named Vaida on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.