Ziah
Of Arabic origin, meaning "light, brilliance" or "luminous, shining".
Name Census estimates that about 1,175 living Americans carry the first name Ziah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Ziah today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ziah births was 2019 (82 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ziah. 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 Ziah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ziah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 291,706 Americans
Peak year
2019
82 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,109
Tracked since 1998
Census
Ziah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 762 people with the first name Ziah, which placed it at #15,178 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
#15,178
National first-name rank
People counted
762
762 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
43.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ziah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziah is Black at 43.7%. The next largest groups are White (21.0%) and Hispanic (18.5%). 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 Ziah 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 Ziah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American43.7% · 333
- White21.0% · 160
- Hispanic or Latino18.5% · 141
- Two or more races12.3% · 94
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Ziah
Ziah is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,186 total registrations, 312 (26.3%) were male and 874 (73.7%) were female.
Ziah as a male name
- Ranked #5,875 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (34 births)
Ziah as a female name
- Ranked #3,109 in 2024
- 52 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (53 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziah on both sides of the split. Of the 755 people counted with this name, 222 were male (29.4%) and 533 were female (70.6%).
Popularity
Ziah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ziah 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 511 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ziah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ziah 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 Ziah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ziahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Ziah, while New York, Georgia, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ziah
The name Ziah has its origins in the Persian language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Persian word "ziya," which means "light" or "radiance." The name is believed to have been popular among the Persian nobility and aristocracy, symbolizing the desire for their children to be a source of enlightenment and illumination.
In early Persian literature, the name Ziah can be found in various poetic works and historical accounts, often associated with individuals of great wisdom and knowledge. One notable reference is found in the epic poem "Shahnameh" by the celebrated Persian poet Ferdowsi, where a character named Ziah is mentioned as a wise and learned scholar.
The earliest recorded examples of individuals bearing the name Ziah can be traced back to the 7th century CE during the Sassanid Empire in Persia. One of the most famous historical figures with this name was Ziah al-Din al-Razi, a Persian polymath and philosopher who lived from 865 to 925 CE. He made significant contributions to various fields, including medicine, physics, and philosophy.
Another notable individual named Ziah was Ziah al-Din Barani, a prominent Muslim historian and scholar from the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. He authored several historical works, including the "Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi," which chronicled the reign of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq.
In the realm of literature, Ziah al-Din Nakhshabi was a renowned Persian poet and mystic who lived during the 13th century. His poetic works, imbued with Sufi themes and spiritual insights, have been widely celebrated in the Persian literary tradition.
The name Ziah also found its way into the Islamic world, with individuals such as Ziah al-Din Yusuf, a 13th-century scholar and judge from Andalusia (modern-day Spain), and Ziah al-Din Muhammad, a 14th-century Persian astronomer and mathematician, bearing this name.
Throughout history, the name Ziah has been associated with individuals of great intellect, wisdom, and spiritual enlightenment, reflecting its roots in the Persian language and the cultural significance of light and radiance.
People
Ziah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ziah 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
Ziah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ziah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,175 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ziah 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 291,706 US residents.
Is Ziah a common name?
We classify Ziah as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,186 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ziah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ziah was 2019, when 82 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ziah is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ziah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 762 people with the name Ziah, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,178 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 Ziah 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 Ziah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziah on both sides of the split. Of the 755 people counted with this name, 222 were male (29.4%) and 533 were female (70.6%). 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 Ziah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziah is Black at 43.7%. The next largest groups are White (21.0%) and Hispanic (18.5%). 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 Ziah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ziah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.7% (333 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 Ziah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ziah a female name?
Yes, 73.7% of people registered as Ziah 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 Ziah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ziah 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 Ziah 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 share the name Ziah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.