Zayda
Feminine · “abundant”
Zayda comes from an Arabic root about increase, and it belongs to a family of names built on one of the more productive verbs in the language. It also, in Yiddish, sounds exactly like the word for grandfather, which is worth knowing before rather than after.
How old is the name Zayda?
Zayda first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Zayda is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,300 people named Zayda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zayda most popular?
Zayda peaked in 2020, reaching #1808 nationally. Today it ranks #2957, 1,149 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From zaida to Zayda
The story of Zayda
Zayd ibn Haritha was a companion of Muhammad and the only one named in the Qur'an, which anchored the whole family of names built on the root. Zaida and Zayda are its feminine forms and have been used across the Arab world for a very long time. Spanish took the name during the centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia and kept it; the Zayda spelling with a y is the more common American transliteration, and the name reaches the record from both Arabic-speaking and Spanish-speaking families.
Meaning
abundant; increasing
Arabic zaida is the feminine of zaid, from zada, 'to increase, to grow, to add'. The root z-y-d gives Zayd, Ziyad, Zaydan and Mazyad, all of them about addition or surplus. The reading is transparent to Arabic speakers and is not in dispute. Yiddish zeyde, meaning grandfather, is an entirely unrelated Slavic borrowing that happens to sound close.
How the name formed
- zaida
- Zayda
Related forms: Zaida · Zaida · Zeyda
Pronouncing Zayda
ZY-dah
Two syllables, stress on the first, the opening rhyming with my in Arabic and Spanish alike. ZAY-duh, with an English long a, is also heard in American use and is closer to the Yiddish word for grandfather.
Nicknames for Zayda
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
- 1956
- Most girls named
- 2020109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1808reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −18.8%56 in 2025, from 69
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.
Zayda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zaida in Arabic — spelling variant
- Zaida in Spanish — spelling variant
- Zeyda in Turkish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Minnesota.
Zaydas among us
people named Zayda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 28,701 born in 2025 was named Zayda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zayda
- #2957
- Zayda on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zayda went to 56 girls in 2025, but Zaida is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 114, which makes it the 846th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,111 places above the chart.
- Zaida58
- Zayda56
About 1 girl in 14,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 28,701 for Zayda 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 Candee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zayda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Candee climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Candee's path sketches the road Zayda is walking now.
Zayda 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 Zayda is headed
Zayda is easing off slowly — about 16% 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.
Zayda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zayda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Arabic meaning and a long presence in both Arabic and Spanish naming.
- Zay and Ida are both natural short forms and Ida is a full name of its own.
- Five letters, no silent ones, and easy for English speakers once heard.
- Said with an English long a it is a homophone for the Yiddish word for grandfather, which Jewish families will hear immediately.
- Zayda, Zaida and Zaydah all circulate and none is dominant.
- English speakers reach for ZAY-duh on first sight, which is the reading that creates the collision.
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What they receive
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Zayda
Feminine · #2957 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zaydas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Zayda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zayda?
- Zayda is one of 2 recorded spellings. Zaida is the more common one — 58 births in 2025 against 56 for Zayda.
- How popular is the name Zayda in 2025?
- Zayda ranks #2957 among US girl names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zayda?
- About 1 in every 28,701 US girls born in 2025 was named Zayda — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zayda with classmates?
- Zayda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zayda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Klaire#2957 · Pauline#2957 · Alea#2957 · Odelia#2957 · Rahaf#2957 · Rosabella#2957 · Kenzlee#2957 · Kalli#2957
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zayda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zayda and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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