Yandi
A feminine given name of African origin meaning "young wife".
Name Census estimates that about 18 living Americans carry the first name Yandi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Yandi today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yandi births was 2012 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yandi. 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 Yandi. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
18
~ 1 in 19,041,908 Americans
Peak year
2012
8 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2008 SSA rank
#14,536
Tracked since 2008
Census
Yandi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 218 people with the first name Yandi, which placed it at #36,419 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
#36,419
National first-name rank
People counted
218
218 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
64.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yandi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yandi is Hispanic at 64.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.7%) and Black (11.5%). 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 Yandi 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 Yandi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino64.7% · 141
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.7% · 43
- Black or African American11.5% · 25
- White2.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 3
- Two or more races0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Yandi
Yandi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 18 total registrations, 5 (27.8%) were male and 13 (72.2%) were female.
Yandi as a male name
- Ranked #14,536 in 2008
- 5 male births in 2008
- Peak: 2008 (5 births)
Yandi as a female name
- Ranked #19,162 in 2013
- 5 female births in 2013
- Peak: 2012 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yandi on both sides of the split. Of the 218 people counted with this name, 123 were male (56.4%) and 95 were female (43.6%).
Popularity
Yandi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yandi from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 13 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
Yandi 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 Yandi 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 Yandi
The given name Yandi is believed to have originated in West Africa, specifically among the Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria. It is a unisex name that carries different meanings depending on the context and language.
In the Yoruba language, the name Yandi is derived from the words "iya" meaning mother and "andi" meaning sweet or precious. Therefore, Yandi can be interpreted as "sweet mother" or "precious mother." This name was traditionally given to children, particularly girls, to express the importance and reverence for motherhood in Yoruba culture.
Historically, the name Yandi has been documented in various Yoruba texts and oral traditions. It is mentioned in the Odu Ifa, a sacred literary corpus of the Yoruba people, which contains stories, proverbs, and spiritual teachings. However, the exact time period and context in which the name first appeared are not clearly recorded.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yandi dates back to the 16th century, when it was used by a prominent Yoruba ruler and military leader. Yandi Ogun, born in the late 15th century, was a skilled warrior and strategist who played a significant role in the expansion of the Oyo Empire, one of the most powerful Yoruba kingdoms of that era.
In the 18th century, another notable figure named Yandi emerged. Yandi Abasi was a respected Yoruba herbalist and healer who was renowned for her expertise in traditional medicine. She is credited with developing numerous remedies and treatments using local plants and herbs.
During the 19th century, a woman named Yandi Oshumare gained recognition as a skilled potter and ceramicist. Her intricate and beautiful pottery designs were highly sought after and became a significant part of Yoruba cultural heritage.
In the early 20th century, a prominent Yoruba author and playwright named Yandi Soyinka made significant contributions to the literary world. He was known for his thought-provoking works that explored themes of identity, culture, and social issues.
Another notable individual named Yandi was Yandi Oluwole, a renowned Yoruba philosopher and scholar who lived in the mid-20th century. She was widely respected for her contributions to the field of African philosophy and her efforts in promoting the preservation of Yoruba cultural traditions.
These examples highlight the historical significance and diverse representations of the name Yandi across various fields, including leadership, medicine, arts, literature, and philosophy, within the Yoruba community and beyond.
People
Yandi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yandi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yandi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yandi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yandi 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 19,041,908 US residents.
Is Yandi a common name?
We classify Yandi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 38.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yandi most popular?
The single biggest year for Yandi was 2012, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yandi is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yandi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 218 people with the name Yandi, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,419 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 Yandi 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 Yandi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yandi on both sides of the split. Of the 218 people counted with this name, 123 were male (56.4%) and 95 were female (43.6%). 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 Yandi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yandi is Hispanic at 64.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.7%) and Black (11.5%). 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 Yandi most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yandi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.7% (141 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 Yandi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yandi a female name?
Yes, 72.2% of people registered as Yandi 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 Yandi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yandi 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 Yandi 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 named Yandi?
Find out how many people have the name Yandi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.