Zamiah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "noble, precious".
Name Census estimates that about 494 living Americans carry the first name Zamiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zamiah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zamiah births was 2012 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zamiah. 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.
People living today
494
~ 1 in 693,835 Americans
Peak year
2012
36 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,394
Tracked since 1999
Census
Zamiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 312 people with the first name Zamiah, which placed it at #28,685 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
#28,685
National first-name rank
People counted
312
312 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zamiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zamiah is Black at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.2%) and Two or More Races (8.0%). 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 Zamiah 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 Zamiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.9% · 243
- Hispanic or Latino11.2% · 35
- Two or more races8.0% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 5
- White1.3% · 4
Popularity
Zamiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zamiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 247 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zamiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zamiah 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 Zamiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zamiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Zamiah, while Florida, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zamiah
The name Zamiah is of Arabic origin, and its roots can be traced back to the 7th century AD. It is derived from the Arabic word "zamia," which means "companion" or "friend." The name was particularly popular in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa during the early Islamic era.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zamiah can be found in the writings of the renowned Islamic scholar and philosopher, Al-Ghazali, who lived from 1058 to 1111 AD. In his works, he mentioned a companion of the Prophet Muhammad named Zamiah ibn Amir, who was known for his wisdom and piety.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Zamiah. One of the most famous was Zamiah al-Andalusi, a renowned poet and scholar from the Andalusian region of Spain, who lived during the 11th century. His poetry and literary works were highly acclaimed and widely studied in the Islamic world.
Another prominent figure was Zamiah al-Mutanabbi, a celebrated Arab poet who lived from 915 to 965 AD. His poetic works were known for their eloquence and mastery of the Arabic language, and he is considered one of the greatest poets in the history of Arabic literature.
In the realm of Islamic jurisprudence, Zamiah al-Shafi'i was a prominent jurist and scholar who lived from 767 to 820 AD. He was a disciple of the renowned Imam Shafi'i and played a significant role in the development and codification of Islamic law.
The name Zamiah also had a presence in the Sufi tradition, with Zamiah al-Naqshbandi, a renowned Sufi mystic and spiritual leader who lived from 1317 to 1389 AD. He was a prominent figure in the Naqshbandi order and was renowned for his teachings on spiritual purification and attainment of divine knowledge.
While the name Zamiah has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also been adopted and used in various other regions and cultures over the centuries. However, its historical significance and connection to the rich literary, scholarly, and spiritual traditions of the Islamic world remain deeply rooted in its origins.
People
Zamiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zamiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zamiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zamiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 494 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zamiah 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 693,835 US residents.
Is Zamiah a common name?
We classify Zamiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 499 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zamiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Zamiah was 2012, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zamiah 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 Zamiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 312 people with the name Zamiah, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,685 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 Zamiah 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 Zamiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zamiah leans strongly female. 304 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 7 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Zamiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zamiah is Black at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.2%) and Two or More Races (8.0%). 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 Zamiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zamiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (243 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 Zamiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zamiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zamiah 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 Zamiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zamiah 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 Zamiah 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 Zamiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.