Saniyah
Saniyah was given to 175 girls in 2025, #1,284 among girls’ names; 7,300 Americans have been recorded with it since 1997 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,240 Americans named Saniyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 10 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saniyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Saniyah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Saniyah is “a female given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “radiant” (سنيّة).
Borrowed from Arabic سنيّة (“radiant”)
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Saniyah?
#1,284 among girls’ names, 2025
Saniyah fell from #931 in 2015 to #1,284 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.16 to 0.11 per 1,000.
595 babies in 2009, the peak
Saniyah peaked in 2009, when 595 girls were given it, #507 among girls’ names. The 175 births of 2025 are 29% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 175 | #1,284 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 176 | #1,312 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 150 | #1,469 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 180 | #1,317 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 171 | #1,321 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 175 | #1,280 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 176 | #1,306 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 286 | #936 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 247 | #1,045 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 237 | #1,093 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 292 | #931 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 313 | #876 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 324 | #827 | 0.18 |
| 2012 | 412 | #684 | 0.23 |
| 2011 | 468 | #619 | 0.27 |
| 2010 | 507 | #580 | 0.29 |
| 2009 | 595 | #507 | 0.32 |
| 2008 | 564 | #547 | 0.30 |
| 2007 | 528 | #568 | 0.27 |
| 2006 | 396 | #715 | 0.21 |
| 2005 | 327 | #795 | 0.18 |
| 2004 | 273 | #893 | 0.15 |
| 2003 | 161 | #1,294 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 79 | #2,135 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 51 | #2,868 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 10 | #9,739 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 12 | #8,122 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,142 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 5 | #15,636 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Saniyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Saniyah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 29 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Saniyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saniyah, and how old are they?
7,240 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,300 Americans ever recorded as Saniyah. The median Saniyah alive today is 15 years old; half are between 10 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 4,640 people named Saniyah (4,629 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,272 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% 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 Z | 1997-2012 | 4,360 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,880 |
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 Saniyah born?
The states with the most babies named Saniyah are Florida, California and Pennsylvania, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 18 | #909 | 1.3× |
| California | 16 | #1,471 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | #757 | 2.1× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,891 | 0.8× |
| New York | 12 | #1,228 | 1.2× |
| Virginia | 11 | #698 | 1.8× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #964 | 1.8× |
| Georgia | 9 | #1,056 | 2.0× |
| Louisiana | 8 | #592 | 1.2× |
| New Jersey | 6 | #1,144 | 1.6× |
Where Saniyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Saniyah is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1997 it was given 2.1 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 Saniyah 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 22,363 babies since 1880, Saniyah is the most given (33% of them). In 2025 it was given to 175 of their 360 babies (49%), 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 Saniyah
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 Saniyah and names like it
- Compare Saniyah and SaniyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSaniyah peaked in 2009.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saniyah since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Saniyah: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Saniyah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Saniyah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.