Kayah
Feminine
Kayah is a phonetic spelling of a sound that American naming reached from several directions at once — Kaya, Kaia, Kaiya and Kayah are all in the records together, and none of them has a settled parent.
How old is the name Kayah?
Kayah first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Kayah alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 500 people named Kayah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kayah most popular?
Kayah peaked in 2001, reaching #4564 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 990 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kaya to Kayah
Our story of Kayah
The final h on an American girls' name has one consistent function: it marks the preceding a as a full vowel rather than a silent one, and it signals that the name should end open rather than closed. Sarah, Hannah, Aaliyah, Kayah, Nevaeh. What is interesting is that the h is not needed — Kaya reads perfectly well — so its presence is a choice about appearance rather than sound. It makes a name look longer, slightly more formal, and vaguely more Hebrew or Arabic, because those are the naming traditions where a terminal h is genuinely functional. Kayah is Kaya with that choice applied, and its 2001 peak sits at the height of the convention's American use.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source establishes an etymology for this spelling. Several genuine words are offered and none is documented as the source: Japanese kaya, a yew or a reed; Turkish kaya, a rock; Hopi kaya, an elder sister, which is widely repeated and poorly attested; and Scandinavian Kaia, a form of Katherine. Kayah is separately the name of a state in Myanmar and of a Polish singer. The record does not connect any of these to the American name.
How the name formed
- Kaya
- Kayah
Related forms: かや · Kaya
Pronouncing Kayah
KY-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first, the first rhyming with sky. Some families say KAY-ah with a long a, and the spelling supports both.
Nicknames for Kayah
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 200730 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4564reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +37.5%22 in 2025, from 16
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.
Kayah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- かや in Japanese — related form
- Kaya in Turkish — related form
Kayahs among us
people named Kayah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Kayah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kayah
- #5554
- Kayah on the 2025 chart
- #129
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kayah went to 22 girls in 2025, but Kaia, Kaiya and Kaya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 11 spellings went to 2,288, which makes it the 129th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,425 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 702 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Kayah 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 Dominick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kayah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dominick climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dominick's path sketches the road Kayah is walking now.
Kayah 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
Kayah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kayah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kay and Kai are both ready-made short forms.
- Five letters and two open syllables travel easily.
- It reads immediately as a name.
- The first vowel is said two ways and the spelling does not settle it.
- Kaya, Kaia, Kayah and Kaiya are four spellings of nearly one sound.
- None of the meanings offered for it is documented.
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What they receive
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Kayah
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kayah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kayah?
- Kayah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Kaia is the more common one — 1,618 births in 2025 against 22 for Kayah.
- How popular is the name Kayah in 2025?
- Kayah ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kayah?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Kayah — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kayah with classmates?
- Kayah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kayah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kayah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kayah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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