Yared
An Ethiopian masculine name meaning "descended" or "child of grace".
Name Census estimates that about 762 living Americans carry the first name Yared. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Yared today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yared births was 2023 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yared. 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 Yared with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
762
~ 1 in 449,809 Americans
Peak year
2023
45 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,510
Tracked since 1992
Census
Yared in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,370 people with the first name Yared, which placed it at #9,919 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
#9,919
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,370 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
63.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yared
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yared is Black at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.0%) and White (1.7%). 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 Yared 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 Yared at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American63.0% · 863
- Hispanic or Latino34.0% · 466
- White1.7% · 23
- Two or more races1.0% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Yared
Yared leans heavily male at 88.7% of total registrations, but 87 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yared as a male name
- Ranked #3,510 in 2024
- 33 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (45 births)
Yared as a female name
- Ranked #19,109 in 2014
- 5 female births in 2014
- Peak: 2001 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yared leans strongly male. 1,173 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 201 female bearers (14.6%).
Popularity
Yared: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yared from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 259 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Yared remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yared 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 Yared during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yareds live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yared
The name Yared has its origins in the Semitic languages, particularly in the Ge'ez language, which was the ancient language of Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is derived from the Ge'ez word "yarad," which means "to descend" or "to go down." The name Yared is believed to have emerged during the early centuries of the Common Era, around the time when Christianity was spreading in the region.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Yared can be found in the Ge'ez literature, specifically in the "Book of Enoch," which is part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's broader scriptural canon. In this text, Yared is referred to as the father of Ethiopian music and is credited with inventing the first musical notations and instruments.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yared. One of the most famous was Yared, the sixth-century scholar and composer who is revered as the father of Ethiopian church music. He is believed to have lived during the reign of the Aksumite King Gebre Mesqel (525-552 AD) and is credited with composing numerous hymns and liturgical chants that are still used in Ethiopian Orthodox liturgies today.
Another prominent figure named Yared was Yared Zewolde, an Ethiopian painter and art educator who lived from 1922 to 1994. He played a significant role in the development of modern Ethiopian art and was instrumental in establishing the Fine Arts School in Addis Ababa.
In the field of literature, Yared Kebede (born in 1948) is a renowned Ethiopian author and playwright. His works, which often explore social and political themes, have been widely acclaimed and have been translated into several languages.
Yared Zeleke (born in 1973) is a prominent Ethiopian-American film director and screenwriter. His film "Lamb" (2015) received critical acclaim and was selected as the Ethiopian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
Yared Berhane (born in 1986) is an Eritrean long-distance runner who has represented his country in numerous international competitions, including the Olympic Games and World Championships.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Yared, a name with deep roots in the Semitic languages and a rich cultural heritage in the Horn of Africa region.
People
Yared + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yared 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
Yared: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yared?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 762 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yared 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 449,809 US residents.
Is Yared a common name?
We classify Yared as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 771 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yared most popular?
The single biggest year for Yared was 2023, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yared 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 Yared in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,370 people with the name Yared, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,919 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 Yared 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 Yared?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yared leans strongly male. 1,173 people counted with this name were male (85.4%), compared with 201 female bearers (14.6%). 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 Yared?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yared is Black at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.0%) and White (1.7%). 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 Yared most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yared in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.0% (863 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 Yared in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yared a male name?
Yes, 88.7% of people registered as Yared 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 Yared still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yared 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 Yared 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 Yared?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Yared at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.