Zyla
A feminine name of Polish origin meaning "life" or "vitality".
Name Census estimates that about 2,257 living Americans carry the first name Zyla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zyla today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zyla births was 2024 (294 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zyla. 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 Zyla with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Zyla is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,863 Americans
Peak year
2024
294 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#901
Tracked since 2000
Census
Zyla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 978 people with the first name Zyla, which placed it at #12,647 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
#12,647
National first-name rank
People counted
978
978 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
41.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zyla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zyla is Black at 41.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.9%) and Hispanic (21.1%). 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 Zyla 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 Zyla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American41.1% · 402
- White23.9% · 234
- Hispanic or Latino21.1% · 206
- Two or more races10.3% · 101
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Zyla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zyla from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,144 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
Zyla 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 Zyla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Zyla, while Washington, Oklahoma, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zyla
The name Zyla is believed to have its origins in the Polish language. It is a diminutive form of the name Zygmunt, which is derived from the German name Siegmund. Siegmund is composed of the Germanic elements "sigu" meaning victory and "mund" meaning protection or protector.
In its earliest recorded use, the name Zyla appeared in historical records from the 16th century in Poland. During this time, it was a popular name among the Polish nobility and gentry. The name's popularity likely stemmed from its connection to the revered Polish king, Sigismund I the Old, who reigned from 1506 to 1548.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Zyla was Zyla Góralczyk, a Polish nobleman and landowner who lived in the late 16th century. Another notable figure was Zyla Szczepanowski, a Polish military commander who fought in the Polish-Swedish War (1626-1629) during the reign of King Sigismund III Vasa.
In the 17th century, the name Zyla gained popularity among Polish Protestants. Zyla Radziwiłł, a prominent Polish Calvinist and patron of the arts, was a notable figure from this era. She was born in 1617 and played a significant role in the cultural life of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Moving into the 18th century, Zyla Kozłowska, a Polish writer and poet, made a name for herself in the literary circles of her time. She was born in 1724 and is remembered for her poetry that celebrated the beauty of nature and the Polish countryside.
Another historical figure with the name Zyla was Zyla Kościuszko, a Polish revolutionary and military leader. Born in 1746, he played a crucial role in the Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1794, which aimed to liberate Poland from foreign occupation.
While the name Zyla has its roots in Polish culture and history, it has also been adopted and used in other Slavic languages and cultures over time. However, its earliest and most significant historical associations remain tied to Poland and the Polish language.
People
Zyla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zyla 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
Zyla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zyla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,257 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zyla 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 151,863 US residents.
Is Zyla a common name?
We classify Zyla as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,273 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zyla most popular?
The single biggest year for Zyla was 2024, when 294 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zyla 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 Zyla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 978 people with the name Zyla, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,647 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 Zyla 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 Zyla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zyla appears almost entirely female. Of the 980 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Zyla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zyla is Black at 41.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.9%) and Hispanic (21.1%). 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 Zyla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zyla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.1% (402 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 Zyla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zyla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zyla 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 Zyla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zyla 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 Zyla 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 Zyla?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.