Draya
Feminine
Draya came off the back of Andrea and Deandra, and the ending has been traveling on its own in American naming for several decades.
How old is the name Draya?
Draya first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Draya is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Draya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Draya most popular?
Draya peaked in 2017, reaching #1902 nationally. Today it ranks #4172, 2,270 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Draya
Ours, offered as ours. Andrea is a name with an odd sex history: it is a men's name in Italy — Andrea Palladio, Andrea del Sarto — and a women's name almost everywhere else, because the -a ending reads as feminine in most European languages and does not in Italian. Draya comes off its back in American naming. Two removes from a Greek word meaning manly, and it has crossed sexes twice on the way.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is established. Andrea descends from Greek andreios, manly, on aner, a man. Whether Draya clips it, clips Deandra, or was assembled from Dr- and -aya is not documented.
Pronouncing Draya
DRAY-ah
Two syllables, first stressed. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Draya
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 2017106 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1902reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%34 in 2025, from 34
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Draya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Andrea in English — related form
- Deandra in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Illinois, Tennessee.
Drayas among us
people named Draya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 47,273 born in 2025 was named Draya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Draya
- #4172
- Draya on the 2025 chart
- #921
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Draya went to 34 girls in 2025, but Drayah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 39, which makes it the 921st most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,251 places above the chart.
- Draya34
- Drayah5
About 1 girl in 41,212 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 47,273 for Draya itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Samanta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Draya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Samanta climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Samanta's path sketches the road Draya is walking now.
Draya sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Draya is headed
Draya is easing off slowly — about 29% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Draya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Draya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Dray and Dee are both plain short forms.
- Read correctly on sight by most English speakers.
- Draya, Dreya and Drea are all in use and none is dominant.
- It reads as a shortening to people who know Andrea.
- There is no documented meaning for the spelling.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Draya
Feminine · #4172 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Drayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Draya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Draya?
- Draya is the most-used spelling in US records — 34 of the 39 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Drayah.
- How popular is the name Draya in 2025?
- Draya ranks #4172 among US girl names in 2025, with 34 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Draya?
- About 1 in every 47,273 US girls born in 2025 was named Draya — 34 in all.
- Will my child share the name Draya with classmates?
- Draya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Draya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseanna#4172 · Elida#4172 · Neila#4172 · Savina#4172 · Kendyl#4172 · Zakiya#4172 · Naisha#4172 · Ethel#4172
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Draya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Draya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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