Yahya
Yahya was given to 455 boys in 2025, #616 among boys’ names; 4,582 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,530 Americans named Yahya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yahya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yahya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yahya is “a male given name from Arabic.”
From Arabic يَحْيَى (yaḥyā), equivalent to John in the Qur’an.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yahya?
#616 among boys’ names, 2025
Yahya rose from #982 in 2015 to #616 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.11 to 0.27 per 1,000.
455 babies in 2025, the peak
Yahya peaked in 2025, when 455 boys were given it, #616 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 379 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 455 | #616 | 0.27 |
| 2024 | 379 | #707 | 0.22 |
| 2023 | 265 | #881 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 243 | #942 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 195 | #1,087 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 210 | #1,006 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 226 | #952 | 0.13 |
| 2018 | 202 | #1,022 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 230 | #922 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 224 | #938 | 0.12 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 211 | #982 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 167 | #1,142 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 173 | #1,083 | 0.09 |
| 2012 | 158 | #1,160 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 130 | #1,317 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 113 | #1,461 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 133 | #1,313 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 94 | #1,654 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 90 | #1,698 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 80 | #1,757 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 67 | #1,917 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 55 | #2,156 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 47 | #2,306 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 35 | #2,747 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 56 | #1,953 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 43 | #2,292 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 30 | #2,858 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 24 | #3,289 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 25 | #3,058 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 20 | #3,541 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 13 | #4,782 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 15 | #4,279 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 9 | #6,204 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 21 | #3,209 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 17 | #3,623 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #7,158 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #5,590 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,768 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #8,117 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 16 | #3,123 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 11 | #4,038 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,956 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 13 | #3,404 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 10 | #4,225 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 6 | #6,247 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,928 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #6,041 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,844 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,430 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Yahya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yahya has been given almost only to boys: 6 girls in 49 years of records.
Girls and boys named Yahya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yahya, and how old are they?
4,530 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,582 Americans ever recorded as Yahya. The median Yahya alive today is 9 years old; half are between 4 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 4,020 people named Yahya (42 women and girls, 3,978 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,857 born in the U.S. The Census count is 41% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 24 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 181 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,170 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,160 |
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 Yahya born?
The states with the most babies named Yahya are New York, Texas and California, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 52 | #344 | 1.9× |
| Texas | 50 | #621 | 0.8× |
| California | 48 | #614 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 41 | #275 | 1.4× |
| Minnesota | 30 | #217 | 4.0× |
| Michigan | 29 | #324 | 1.4× |
| Virginia | 20 | #407 | 1.5× |
| New Jersey | 18 | #449 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 16 | #625 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #717 | 0.4× |
Where Yahya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yahya is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1972 it was given 4.0 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 boys’ 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 Yahya 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 5,898 babies since 1880, Yahya is the most given (78% of them). In 2025 it was given to 455 of their 536 babies (85%), 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 Yahya
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 Yahya and names like it
- Compare Yahya and YahiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYahya peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yahya since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Yahya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Yahya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yahya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.