Wayna
A feminine name of Quechua origin meaning "young beautiful woman".
Name Census estimates that about 40 living Americans carry the first name Wayna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Wayna today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wayna births was 1964 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wayna. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Wayna. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
40
~ 1 in 8,568,858 Americans
Peak year
1964
11 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1977 SSA rank
#11,300
Tracked since 1921
Census
Wayna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 141 people with the first name Wayna, which placed it at #46,868 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
#46,868
National first-name rank
People counted
141
141 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wayna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wayna is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Black (22.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.2%). 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 Wayna 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 Wayna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.7% · 87
- Black or African American22.0% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.2% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 6
- Two or more races2.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1
Popularity
Wayna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wayna from the 1920s through to the 1970s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 21 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Wayna remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wayna 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 Wayna 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 Wayna
The name Wayna is believed to have its origins in the Quechua language spoken by the Inca civilization of ancient Peru. The word "wayna" in Quechua means "young" or "youth". It is thought to have been used as a name to signify youthfulness, vigor, and vitality.
During the time of the Inca Empire, which flourished from the 13th to the 16th century, names in the Quechua language were commonly given to individuals. The name Wayna may have been particularly popular among the nobility or those who held positions of importance within the Inca society.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wayna can be found in the chronicles of the Spanish conquistadors who encountered the Inca Empire in the 16th century. The Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, in his work "Crónica del Perú", mentioned a leader named Wayna Qhapaq, who was the penultimate emperor of the Inca Empire before the Spanish conquest.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Wayna. One example is Wayna Duwawa, a respected leader of the Lenape (Delaware) tribe in the 18th century. He played a crucial role in negotiating treaties and maintaining peaceful relations between his tribe and the European settlers in the Delaware Valley region.
Another prominent figure with the name Wayna was Wayna Wee, a revered chief of the Osage Nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was known for his diplomatic skills and efforts to preserve the traditional ways of life for his people during a time of significant change and conflict.
In more recent times, Wayna Picchu, a prominent mountain peak located adjacent to the iconic Machu Picchu ruins in Peru, bears a name derived from the Quechua language. It is believed to have been named after the Inca ruler Wayna Qhapaq, further cementing the historical significance of this name.
Additionally, Wayna Rapper, a Native American hip-hop artist from the Yakama Nation, has gained recognition for his music that blends traditional indigenous themes with contemporary styles. His stage name, Wayna, pays tribute to his cultural heritage and the meaning of youthfulness and vitality associated with the Quechua word.
People
Wayna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wayna as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Wayna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wayna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 40 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wayna 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 8,568,858 US residents.
Is Wayna a common name?
We classify Wayna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 51% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 59 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wayna most popular?
The single biggest year for Wayna was 1964, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wayna is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wayna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 141 people with the name Wayna, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,868 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 Wayna 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 Wayna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wayna leans strongly female. 116 people counted with this name were female (82.3%), compared with 25 male bearers (17.7%). 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 Wayna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wayna is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Black (22.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.2%). 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 Wayna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wayna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.7% (87 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 Wayna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wayna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wayna 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 Wayna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wayna 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 Wayna 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 called Wayna?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.