Zyan
A Persian baby name meaning "brilliant, splendid, or beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 1,943 living Americans carry the first name Zyan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Zyan today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zyan births was 2024 (159 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zyan. 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 Zyan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zyan 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
1.9K
~ 1 in 176,405 Americans
Peak year
2024
159 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,244
Tracked since 1996
Census
Zyan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,178 people with the first name Zyan, which placed it at #11,039 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
#11,039
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,178 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zyan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zyan is Black at 54.4%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Zyan 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 Zyan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.4% · 641
- White14.2% · 167
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 134
- Two or more races9.7% · 114
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.2% · 108
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Zyan
Zyan leans heavily male at 83.4% of total registrations, but 325 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Zyan as a male name
- Ranked #1,244 in 2024
- 159 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (159 births)
Zyan as a female name
- Ranked #12,234 in 2022
- 8 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2007 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Zyan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,173 people counted with this name, 919 were male (78.3%) and 254 were female (21.7%).
Popularity
Zyan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zyan 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 795 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Zyan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zyan 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 Zyan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zyans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Zyan, while Virginia, Utah, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zyan
The name Zyan is believed to have originated from the Arabic language, with its roots tracing back to the Middle Eastern region during the medieval period. It is derived from the Arabic word "zain," which means "beauty" or "grace." The name's alternative spellings include Zain, Zayn, and Zein.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Zyan can be found in the 13th century, when it was mentioned in Arabic literary works and historical accounts. During this time, the name was commonly used in various parts of the Middle East, particularly in regions governed by Islamic empires and caliphates.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Zyan al-Din Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Qurashi, a renowned Islamic scholar and theologian, gained prominence in the city of Damascus. His contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy made him a significant figure in the intellectual circles of his era.
Moving forward, in the 16th century, a prominent poet named Zyan al-Din al-Hafiz, who hailed from the Persian region, gained recognition for his exquisite literary works. His poetry celebrated the beauty of nature and explored themes of love and mysticism, earning him a place among the most celebrated poets of his time.
In the 19th century, a notable figure named Zyan al-Abidine Ben Ismail emerged as a prominent political leader and reformer in Tunisia. He played a pivotal role in modernizing the country and introducing various social and economic reforms during his reign as the Bey of Tunis from 1837 to 1859.
Another notable bearer of the name Zyan was Zyan al-Din al-Jazari, a renowned 13th-century inventor and engineer from Diyarbakir (modern-day Turkey). He is renowned for his pioneering work in the field of mechanics and automation, particularly his groundbreaking inventions documented in his treatise, "The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices."
These are just a few examples of the historical figures who carried the name Zyan, each leaving a lasting impact in their respective fields and contributing to the rich cultural heritage of the regions they hailed from.
People
Zyan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zyan 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
Zyan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zyan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,943 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zyan 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 176,405 US residents.
Is Zyan a common name?
We classify Zyan as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,961 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zyan most popular?
The single biggest year for Zyan was 2024, when 159 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zyan 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 Zyan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,178 people with the name Zyan, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,039 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 Zyan 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 Zyan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Zyan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,173 people counted with this name, 919 were male (78.3%) and 254 were female (21.7%). 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 Zyan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zyan is Black at 54.4%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Zyan most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zyan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.4% (641 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 Zyan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zyan a male name?
Yes, 83.4% of people registered as Zyan 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 Zyan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zyan 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 Zyan 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 Zyan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.