Diya
Diya was given to 119 girls in 2025, #1,714 among girls’ names; 5,091 Americans have been recorded with it since 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,050 Americans named Diya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 9 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Diya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Diya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Diya is “a female given name from Sanskrit used in India.” Its etymology gives the sense “earthen lamp” (दिया).
Borrowed from Sanskrit दिया (diyā, “earthen lamp”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Diya?
#1,714 among girls’ names, 2025
Diya fell from #1,037 in 2015 to #1,714 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.14 to 0.07 per 1,000.
314 babies in 2009, the peak
Diya peaked in 2009, when 314 babies were given it (309 girls, #889 among girls’ names). The 119 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 119 | #1,714 | 0.07 |
| 2024 | 122 | #1,676 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 121 | #1,700 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 135 | #1,579 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 143 | #1,488 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 149 | #1,450 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 162 | #1,385 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 191 | #1,224 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 227 | #1,110 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 243 | #1,075 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 257 | #1,037 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 209 | #1,173 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 208 | #1,156 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 248 | #1,022 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 288 | #907 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 280 | #926 | 0.16 |
| 2009 | 309 | #889 | 0.17 |
| 2008 | 264 | #1,003 | 0.14 |
| 2007 | 269 | #991 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 232 | #1,091 | 0.12 |
| 2005 | 257 | #960 | 0.14 |
| 2004 | 281 | #873 | 0.15 |
| 2003 | 140 | #1,417 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 92 | #1,919 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 54 | #2,742 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 18 | #6,010 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 14 | #6,925 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,676 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,406 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 7 | #10,883 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,187 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #13,877 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,755 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Diya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Diya has been given almost only to girls: 12 boys in 33 years of records.
Girls and boys named Diya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Diya, and how old are they?
5,050 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 5,091 Americans ever recorded as Diya. The median Diya alive today is 15 years old; half are between 9 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 4,752 people named Diya (4,654 women and girls, 98 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,309 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 23 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,760 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,270 |
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 Diya born?
The states with the most babies named Diya are California, Texas and New Jersey, with 61% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 31 | #917 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,825 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #792 | 3.6× |
| Illinois | 9 | #951 | 1.6× |
| New York | 8 | #1,563 | 1.2× |
| Massachusetts | 6 | #790 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,517 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,092 | 1.1× |
Where Diya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Diya is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1991 it was given 3.6 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 Diya 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 7,963 babies since 1880, Diya is the most given (64% of them). In 2025 it was given to 119 of their 165 babies (72%), again the most given.
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 Diya
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 Diya and names like it
- Compare Diya and DiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sDiya peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Diya since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Diya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Diya.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Diya alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.