The baby name Zhavia — plus at least five spelling variants — debuted very impressively in the U.S. baby name data in 2018:
- Zhavia, 306 baby girls & 7 baby boys
- Jhavia, 22 baby girls
- Zaviah, 21 baby girls
- Zavayah, 8 baby girls
- Zhaviah, 7 baby girls
- Zhaviyah, 6 baby girls
The name Elanese also debuted in 2018, though not as impressively:
Both names came from the same source: The Four, a reality TV music competition that began airing in January of 2018.
Vocalists Elanese [EL-ah-nees] Lansen and Zhavia [zha-VIE-ah] Ward went head-to-head in the very first episode. Elanese was eliminated, but Zhavia lasted for seven episodes (out of a total of eight).
The heavy marketing of the show toward the end of 2017 probably also played a part in highlighting these two particular contestants — and, of course, their names.
So we know that Zhavia came out on top in both the singing competition and in the baby name data, but which of the two names do you prefer? Why?
P.S. A third The Four name, Sharaya, returned to the data in 2018 after being absent for several years.