Saya
Saya was given to 59 girls in 2025, #2,891 among girls’ names; 1,305 Americans have been recorded with it since 1990 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,290 Americans named Saya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 8 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Saya?
#2,891 among girls’ names, 2025
Saya fell from #2,522 in 2015 to #2,891 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 40.3 to 36.7 per million.
98 babies in 2010, the peak
Saya peaked in 2010, when 98 girls were given it, #2,042 among girls’ names. The 59 births of 2025 are 60% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 59 | #2,891 | 36.7 |
| 2024 | 47 | #3,382 | 29.0 |
| 2023 | 28 | #4,849 | 17.5 |
| 2022 | 36 | #4,095 | 21.9 |
| 2021 | 37 | #3,996 | 22.5 |
| 2020 | 27 | #4,859 | 16.7 |
| 2019 | 52 | #3,122 | 31.0 |
| 2018 | 54 | #3,042 | 31.7 |
| 2017 | 48 | #3,341 | 27.8 |
| 2016 | 63 | #2,759 | 35.6 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 72 | #2,522 | 40.3 |
| 2014 | 69 | #2,575 | 38.6 |
| 2013 | 71 | #2,528 | 40.5 |
| 2012 | 70 | #2,593 | 39.7 |
| 2011 | 75 | #2,451 | 42.6 |
| 2010 | 98 | #2,042 | 55.1 |
| 2009 | 70 | #2,637 | 38.1 |
| 2008 | 61 | #2,918 | 32.3 |
| 2007 | 39 | #4,040 | 20.3 |
| 2006 | 29 | #4,930 | 15.3 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,201 | 10.8 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,927 | 11.4 |
| 2003 | 16 | #7,143 | 8.8 |
| 2002 | 23 | #5,236 | 12.8 |
| 2001 | 14 | #7,653 | 7.8 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,424 | 9.4 |
| 1999 | 18 | #5,859 | 10.1 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,942 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 10 | #8,890 | 5.7 |
| 1996 | 11 | #8,012 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 12 | #7,426 | 6.8 |
| 1993 | 6 | #13,105 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 7 | #11,450 | 3.8 |
| 1991 | 5 | #14,910 | 2.7 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,750 | 5.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Saya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Saya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 35 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Saya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saya, and how old are they?
1,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,305 Americans ever recorded as Saya. The median Saya alive today is 13 years old; half are between 8 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 1,243 people named Saya (1,210 women and girls, 33 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,070 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% 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 | 51 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 585 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 659 |
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 Saya born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 17 | #1,401 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,115 | 0.2× |
Where Saya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Saya is most over-represented in California: since 1990 it was given 1.2 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 Saya 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 2,425 babies since 1880, Saya is the most given (54% of them). In 2025 it was given to 59 of their 114 babies (52%), 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 Saya
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 Saya and names like it
- Compare Saya and SaiyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSaya peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saya since 1910.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Saya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Saya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.