Ziyi
A Chinese feminine name meaning "purple ray" or "violet beam".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Ziyi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Ziyi today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ziyi births was 2015 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ziyi. 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 Ziyi. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
2015
10 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2015 SSA rank
#14,048
Tracked since 2015
Census
Ziyi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 934 people with the first name Ziyi, which placed it at #13,065 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
#13,065
National first-name rank
People counted
934
934 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
88.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ziyi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziyi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.7%. The next largest groups are White (7.6%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Ziyi 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 Ziyi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander88.7% · 828
- White7.6% · 71
- Black or African American2.7% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 7
- Two or more races0.3% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Ziyi
Ziyi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 25 total registrations, 5 (20.0%) were male and 20 (80.0%) were female.
Ziyi as a male name
- Ranked #14,048 in 2015
- 5 male births in 2015
- Peak: 2015 (5 births)
Ziyi as a female name
- Ranked #17,581 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziyi on both sides of the split. Of the 943 people counted with this name, 376 were male (39.9%) and 567 were female (60.1%).
Popularity
Ziyi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ziyi from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 15 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ziyi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ziyi 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 Ziyi 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 Ziyi
The name Ziyi is derived from the Chinese language and has its origins in ancient China. It is a combination of two Chinese characters, "Zi" meaning "son" and "Yi" meaning "righteous" or "upright." The name Ziyi was traditionally given to boys, signifying the parents' wish for their son to grow up to be a righteous and moral individual.
Ziyi has a long history, with references to the name dating back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC). During this period, the name was associated with scholars and officials who upheld the Confucian values of righteousness, loyalty, and filial piety. The name gained popularity among the educated elite and was often used by prominent families.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Ziyi can be found in the classic Chinese text "Shiji" (Records of the Grand Historian), written by the historian Sima Qian during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). The text mentions a high-ranking official named Ziyi who served under the Han Emperor Wudi.
Throughout Chinese history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ziyi. One of the most famous was Ziyi Zhang (580–657 AD), a renowned statesman and calligrapher during the Tang Dynasty. He is renowned for his contributions to the development of the regular script style of Chinese calligraphy.
Another prominent figure was Ziyi Li (1564–1614), a scholar and philosopher from the late Ming Dynasty. He was known for his expertise in Confucian and Neo-Confucian thought and served as a high-ranking official in the imperial court.
In the modern era, the name Ziyi has gained international recognition due to the renowned Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, born in 1979. She rose to fame for her roles in acclaimed films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Memoirs of a Geisha," and "House of Flying Daggers."
Other notable individuals with the name Ziyi include Ziyi Zhou (1976–), a Chinese painter and artist known for her contemporary ink paintings, and Ziyi Huang (1981–), a Chinese professional golfer who has competed on the LPGA Tour.
While the name Ziyi has ancient roots and historical significance in Chinese culture, it has also transcended cultural boundaries and gained recognition globally, particularly through the achievements of notable figures in various fields.
People
Ziyi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ziyi 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
Ziyi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ziyi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ziyi 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Ziyi a common name?
We classify Ziyi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ziyi most popular?
The single biggest year for Ziyi was 2015, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ziyi is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ziyi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 934 people with the name Ziyi, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,065 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 Ziyi 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 Ziyi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ziyi on both sides of the split. Of the 943 people counted with this name, 376 were male (39.9%) and 567 were female (60.1%). 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 Ziyi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ziyi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.7%. The next largest groups are White (7.6%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Ziyi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ziyi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.7% (828 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 Ziyi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ziyi a female name?
Yes, 80.0% of people registered as Ziyi 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 Ziyi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ziyi 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 Ziyi 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 called Ziyi?
You can see how many people share the name Ziyi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.