Ayana
Ayana was given to 200 girls in 2025, #1,161 among girls’ names; 12,096 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 11,900 Americans named Ayana and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 13 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ayana by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ayana mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ayana is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ayana?
#1,161 among girls’ names, 2025
Ayana fell from #1,040 in 2015 to #1,161 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.14 to 0.12 per 1,000.
405 babies in 2006, the peak
Ayana peaked in 2006, when 405 girls were given it, #700 among girls’ names. The 200 births of 2025 are 49% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 200 | #1,161 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 221 | #1,105 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 249 | #1,016 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 235 | #1,070 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 221 | #1,116 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 182 | #1,248 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 202 | #1,175 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 245 | #1,049 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 225 | #1,121 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 278 | #968 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 256 | #1,040 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 251 | #1,032 | 0.14 |
| 2013 | 261 | #964 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 304 | #876 | 0.17 |
| 2011 | 298 | #877 | 0.17 |
| 2010 | 351 | #783 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 360 | #785 | 0.20 |
| 2008 | 350 | #818 | 0.19 |
| 2007 | 359 | #800 | 0.19 |
| 2006 | 405 | #700 | 0.21 |
| 2005 | 383 | #713 | 0.21 |
| 2004 | 364 | #730 | 0.20 |
| 2003 | 369 | #707 | 0.20 |
| 2002 | 367 | #683 | 0.20 |
| 2001 | 385 | #654 | 0.21 |
| 2000 | 336 | #697 | 0.19 |
| 1999 | 298 | #749 | 0.17 |
| 1998 | 305 | #722 | 0.17 |
| 1997 | 251 | #824 | 0.14 |
| 1996 | 247 | #820 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 278 | #737 | 0.16 |
| 1994 | 276 | #752 | 0.15 |
| 1993 | 265 | #778 | 0.15 |
| 1992 | 211 | #919 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 208 | #922 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 172 | #1,040 | 0.09 |
| 1989 | 146 | #1,129 | 0.08 |
| 1988 | 79 | #1,640 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 74 | #1,648 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 68 | #1,716 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 60 | #1,857 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 69 | #1,604 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 91 | #1,320 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 92 | #1,345 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 110 | #1,193 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 118 | #1,150 | 0.07 |
| 1979 | 107 | #1,211 | 0.07 |
| 1978 | 116 | #1,118 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 139 | #983 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 187 | #766 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 147 | #897 | 0.10 |
| 1974 | 102 | #1,134 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 89 | #1,200 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 91 | #1,181 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 32 | #2,379 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,124 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ayana a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ayana has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 56 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ayana: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ayana, and how old are they?
11,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 12,096 Americans ever recorded as Ayana. The median Ayana alive today is 22 years old; half are between 13 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 9,522 people named Ayana (9,478 women and girls, 44 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,686 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,070 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,390 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,430 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,010 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ayana born?
The states with the most babies named Ayana are Texas, Florida and New York, with 44% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 24 | #1,127 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 23 | #716 | 1.3× |
| New York | 20 | #795 | 1.8× |
| California | 20 | #1,246 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 9 | #1,002 | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 9 | #795 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,134 | 0.9× |
| Arizona | 7 | #832 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,257 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,298 | 0.6× |
Where Ayana is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ayana is most over-represented in New York: since 1970 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ayana with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 1,094,509 babies since 1880, Ayana is the fifth most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 200 of their 5,384 babies (3.7%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ayana
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ayana and names like it
- Compare Ayana and AnnaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAyana peaked in 2006.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ayana since 1910.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Ayana.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ayana alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.