Ziya
A masculine Arabic name meaning "light" or "splendor".
Name Census estimates that about 1,776 living Americans carry the first name Ziya. It is a predominantly female name (96.5% of registrations). The average person named Ziya today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ziya births was 2022 (147 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ziya. 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 Ziya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ziya is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 63 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Ziya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 192,992 Americans
Peak year
2022
147 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,688
Tracked since 1999
Census
Ziya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,147 people with the first name Ziya, which placed it at #11,282 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
#11,282
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,147 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ziya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziya is Black at 46.4%. The next largest groups are White (20.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%). 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 Ziya 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 Ziya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.4% · 532
- White20.1% · 231
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.8% · 204
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 86
- Two or more races7.5% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Ziya
Ziya leans heavily female at 96.5% of total registrations, but 63 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ziya as a male name
- Ranked #10,878 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (8 births)
Ziya as a female name
- Ranked #1,688 in 2024
- 121 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (147 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ziya leans strongly female. 937 people counted with this name were female (81.8%), compared with 208 male bearers (18.2%).
Popularity
Ziya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ziya 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 794 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
Ziya 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 Ziya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ziyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Ziya, while Virginia, Missouri, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ziya
The name Ziya has its roots in the Persian language, originating from the word "ziya" which means light or radiance. It is believed to have been in use as a given name since ancient times in regions where Persian culture and language held sway, such as modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia.
One of the earliest known references to the name Ziya can be found in the famous Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), written by the renowned poet Ferdowsi in the 10th century AD. In this literary masterpiece, Ziya is mentioned as the name of a character, though little is known about their specific role or significance.
The name gained popularity across the Persian-speaking world during the medieval period, with notable historical figures bearing the name Ziya. One such individual was Ziya al-Din Nakhshabi, a 12th-century Persian scholar and Sufi mystic who authored several works on Islamic philosophy and spirituality.
Another prominent figure was Ziya Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and poet who lived in the 19th century (1825-1880). He served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and is widely regarded as one of the most influential literary figures of the Tanzimat era, a period of significant reforms in the Ottoman Empire.
In more recent history, Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924) was a Turkish sociologist, writer, and political activist who played a significant role in the ideological foundations of the Republic of Turkey. His ideas on Turkish nationalism and modernization had a lasting impact on the country's political and cultural landscape.
The name Ziya has also been borne by several prominent figures in the arts and sciences. Ziya Fazli (1938-2021) was an acclaimed Afghan poet and writer, celebrated for his contributions to the revival of Afghan literature in the 20th century. Ziya Bunyadov (1923-1997) was an Azerbaijani historian and archeologist, renowned for his research on the history of the Caucasus region and the spread of Islam.
While the name Ziya has its origins in the Persian language and culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and found use in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with historical ties to the Persian cultural sphere or Islamic civilization.
People
Ziya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ziya 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
Ziya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ziya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,776 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ziya 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 192,992 US residents.
Is Ziya a common name?
We classify Ziya as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,790 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ziya most popular?
The single biggest year for Ziya was 2022, when 147 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ziya is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ziya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,147 people with the name Ziya, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,282 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 Ziya 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 Ziya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ziya leans strongly female. 937 people counted with this name were female (81.8%), compared with 208 male bearers (18.2%). 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 Ziya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziya is Black at 46.4%. The next largest groups are White (20.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%). 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 Ziya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ziya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.4% (532 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 Ziya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ziya a female name?
Yes, 96.5% of people registered as Ziya 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 Ziya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ziya 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 Ziya 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 have Ziya as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Ziya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.