Name Awesome

Yaya

#11,939 in 2025Boys' name

Possibly Yahweh is gracious, through يَحْيَى

Yaya has been given to 71 babies in the U.S. since 1999. In 2025 it ranked #11,939 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Yaya, 2025

1 in 553,000

Yaya over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yaya: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly Yahweh is gracious, through يَحْيَى

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Yaya means

Yaya belongs to the name family reached through Yaya → يَحْيَى. Its meaning is “Yahweh is gracious”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

The male name is ultimately from Arabic يَحْيَى (yaḥyā); likely through a West African language.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Yaya (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Yaya is used in English.

Yaya comes through Arabic يَحْيَى.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include يَحْيَى.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 71 boys were recorded with the name Yaya between 1999 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 8 in 2021; its best national rank was #9,666 in 2021.

How common is Yaya?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#11,939
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yaya sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yaya. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yayas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yaya was born before 2019 — so the typical Yaya is around 6 today.

Median birth year
2019
About 6 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
42.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
93.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
71
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 42.3% of all recorded uses (30).

Is Yaya rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+352
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
75.0%
Peak was 2021 (8)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#9,666
2021

Spellings of Yaya

Yaya is not the most common spelling — Ray is, with 36.2% against Yaya's 0.01%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Yaya around the world

Where Yaya ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2009–2013
    #3,822
    in 2013
  • France
    1963–2025
    #1,156
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2020–2020
    #2,570
    in 2020

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Yaya by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#11,939
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#9,666
2021
Peak year
2021
8 that year
First recorded
1999
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
71
Count in 2025
6

Names similar to Yaya

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ZayaShmayaMayaJayaDayaIsayaKayaAsayaRayaAmayaYaydenIzayaMasayaChayaArayaAzayaShayaSanjayaYeshayaJirayaHridayaTakayaShivaya

Sibling names for Yaya

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Yaya

Top names of 2021, Yaya's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2021Boys' names starting with Y