Zaia
Feminine
Zaia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 610 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Zaia joins a Z front to an -aia ending, and it is separately an Assyrian and Italian surname.
How old is the name Zaia?
Zaia first appears in US birth records in 2003 — 22 years ago. The typical Zaia is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Zaia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zaia most popular?
Zaia peaked in 2023, reaching #1709 nationally. Today it ranks #2607, 898 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Zaia
Our story of Zaia is a story of a letter and an ending. Z fronts rose across American girls' naming from the 1990s — Zaia, Zaya, Zaria, Zoya — and open -aia endings came with them. Zaia is separately an Assyrian surname and a Venetian one, both with their own histories. American use appears in the 2010s, and no older word is documented behind it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No documented etymology as a given name. It is a modern American coinage on the Z front, and separately an Assyrian and a Venetian surname whose origins differ. Attributions to older languages are not supported for American use. Honest sources record it as a coinage.
Pronouncing Zaia
ZY-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some bearers say ZAY-uh instead.
Nicknames for Zaia
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
- 2003
- Most girls named
- 2023120 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1709reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −13.2%66 in 2025, from 76
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.
Zaia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zaya in English — spelling variant
- Zaia in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Zaias among us
people named Zaia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 24,353 born in 2025 was named Zaia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zaia
- #2607
- Zaia on the 2025 chart
- #633
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zaia went to 66 girls in 2025, but Zaya, Zayah and Zaiya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 348, which makes it the 633rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,974 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,619 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 24,353 for Zaia 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 Zenaida test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zaia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zenaida climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zenaida's path sketches the road Zaia is walking now.
Zaia 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 Zaia is headed
Zaia looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 42% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Zaia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zaia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Z front makes it immediately distinctive.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk once heard.
- Four letters make it very compact.
- There is no documented meaning.
- The pronunciation splits between two readings.
- Zaya and Zaia are both in circulation.
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What they receive
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Zaia
Feminine · #2607 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zaias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Zaia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zaia?
- Zaia is one of 6 recorded spellings. Zaya is the more common one — 170 births in 2025 against 66 for Zaia.
- How popular is the name Zaia in 2025?
- Zaia ranks #2607 among US girl names in 2025, with 66 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zaia?
- About 1 in every 24,353 US girls born in 2025 was named Zaia — 66 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zaia with classmates?
- Zaia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zaia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Navie#2607 · Ellyana#2607 · Atalia#2607 · Maddox#2607 · Henny#2607 · Diane#2607 · Adella#2607 · Delylah#2607
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zaia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zaia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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