Senaida
Feminine · “Belonging to Zeus”
There is a genus of doves called Zenaida, and it is named after a woman. A French naturalist working in Philadelphia named it for his wife, who was a daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, and the mourning dove that turns up on every telephone wire in North America carries her name in its scientific one.
How old is the name Senaida?
Senaida first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Senaida alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 900 people named Senaida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Senaida most popular?
Senaida peaked in 1897, reaching #1555 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Zenais to Senaida
The story of Senaida
Charles Lucien Bonaparte was Napoleon's nephew, an ornithologist of real distinction, and married to his own cousin Zenaide; when he described a group of American doves he attached her name to them, which was a normal courtesy of the period and has outlasted everything else about the marriage. The mourning dove, the white-winged dove and a dozen others are still classified under it. The god at the bottom of the name is himself named for the daylight sky, from a word that also produced the Latin for a god and the name of the planet Jupiter and the day in the middle of the week in several European languages. A woman in Philadelphia, a bird on a wire and a Roman planet all carry one very old word about the sky.
Meaning
Belonging to Zeus
Greek Zenais, from the genitive of the god's name, so the whole means something like of Zeus or Zeus's own. It was an ordinary name in the Greek-speaking east and reached Spanish through the calendar of saints. This spelling writes the initial with an s, which in most Spanish-speaking places is the same sound as the z anyway.
How the name formed
- Zenais
- Zenaida
- Senaida
Related forms: Zenaida · Zenais · Zinaida
Pronouncing Senaida
seh-NY-duh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Spanish speakers give the vowels their full value; English speakers reduce the outer two. The ai is one syllable rather than two, which is the only place the spelling can mislead.
Nicknames for Senaida
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
- 1897
- Most girls named
- 193722 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1555reached in 1897
- Change vs 2015
- +60.0%8 in 2022, from 5
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.
Senaida in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zenaida in Spanish — same name
- Zenais in Greek — related form
- Zinaida in Russian — same name
Senaidas among us
people named Senaida are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Senaida sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is at home in Spanish, Russian and Greek use with only small changes.
- Zena and Naida are two short forms with nothing in common.
- The name has a genuinely ancient meaning that can be given in three words.
- Zenaida with a z is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected.
- English speakers will make the ai two syllables and produce a longer name.
- It will be heard as Zenaida, Sonaida and Senada, all of which circulate.
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Senaida
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Senaidas 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 Senaida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Senaida in 2025?
- Senaida is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Senaida with classmates?
- Senaida will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Senaida? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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