How popular is the baby name Zia in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Zia.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Zia


Posts that Mention the Name Zia

Three-letter “-ia” baby names: Gia, Nia, Sia

3-letter girl names ending with "ia"

After posting about the name Zia a few weeks ago, I thought it would be cool to look for other baby names with the same construction (consonant + –ia) in the SSA’s dataset.

Turns out, nearly all permutations have appeared in the data at some point. Here’s the full list, ordered by 2018 popularity levels:

  • Mia (currently the 7th most popular name for baby girls)
  • Lia (246th)
  • Gia (386th)
  • Nia (474th)
  • Sia (1,344th)
  • Tia (1,423rd)
  • Zia (1,549th)
  • Jia (1,948th)
  • Pia (2,048th)
  • Ria (2,193rd)
  • Dia (3,848th)
  • Via (4,104th)
  • Xia (5,262nd)
  • Fia (5,819th)
  • Kia (7,207th)
  • Bia (13,983rd)
  • Cia (currently unlisted)
  • Yia (currently unlisted)

The only consonants I couldn’t find with an –ia ending were H, Q and W. (But I did happen to notice one –ia named that started with a vowel: Aia.)

Which of the above –ia names do you like best? Why?

Image by Manuela from Pixabay

The baby name Zia

New Mexico state flag

In 1925, New Mexico officially adopted its distinctive state flag: the red sun symbol of the Zia people on a field of yellow.

The Zia sun symbol has since become symbolic of the state itself. It’s on New Mexico license plates, New Mexico highway markers, and New Mexico quarters. Even the New Mexico State Capitol building, which is round and has four entrance wings, was constructed to resemble it.

New Mexico’s love for the Zia sun symbol is also apparent in the baby name data. The baby name Zia — which has various possible origins, including Arabic and Hebrew — sees higher-than-expected usage in New Mexico:

  • 2018: 140 U.S. baby girls named Zia
    • 14 (10%) born in New Mexico
  • 2017: 119 U.S. baby girls named Zia
    • 5 (4%) born in New Mexico
  • 2016: 142 U.S. baby girls named Zia
    • 10 (7%) born in New Mexico
  • 2015: 130 U.S. baby girls named Zia
    • 5 (4%) born in New Mexico
  • 2014: 122 U.S. baby girls named Zia
    • 7 (6%) born in New Mexico

These may not seem like impressive numbers, but remember that New Mexico, despite being the fifth-largest U.S. state in terms of area, is home to far less than 1% of the total U.S. population.

Do you like the name Zia? Would you consider using it?

Sources: Zia sun sign, New Mexico State Capitol, Zia people – Wikipedia. U.S. States by Population – Wikipedia, SSA

Popular baby names in British Columbia (Canada), 2018

According to British Columbia’s Vital Statistics Agency, the most popular baby names in the province in 2018 were Olivia and Liam.

Here are British Columbia’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 246 baby girls
  2. Emma, 222
  3. Amelia, 170 (tie)
  4. Charlotte, 170 (tie)
  5. Chloe, 160
  6. Sophia, 149
  7. Ava, 148
  8. Isla, 137
  9. Emily, 134
  10. Abigail, 132

Boy Names

  1. Liam, 283 baby boys
  2. Lucas, 225
  3. Oliver, 211
  4. Benjamin, 200
  5. Logan, 183
  6. Ethan, 182
  7. Noah, 181 (tie)
  8. William, 181 (tie)
  9. James, 175
  10. Leo, 165

In the girls’ top 10, Isla replaced Hannah.

In the boys’ top 10, Leo replaced Owen.

Names used just five times each in 2018 include…

  • Girl names: Ayda, Bria, Clover, Dilnoor, Ever, Flora, Guneet, Havana, Irene, Jenny, Krystal, Lavinia, Magnolia, Opal, Pippa, Rosha, Sahej, Taryn, Waverly, Zia
  • Boy names: Adriel, Bjorn, Clyde, Drake, Eamon, Fergus, Graydon, Hamza, Ibraheem, Jagger, Kaya, Leland, Malikai, Ollie, Partap, Reginald, Smith, Tegh, Watson, Zephyr

In 2017, the top names were Olivia and Benjamin.

Source: Baby’s Most Chosen Names in British Columbia, 2018

Pop culture baby name game results, 2018

Here are the results of Pop Culture Baby Name Game 2018! For the pop culture context of any of these names, just click back over to the original game post.

Rises

Names that saw higher usage in 2018:

No Change

Names that saw no change in usage in 2018.

Drops

Names that saw lower usage in 2018:

Absent

Names that were absent from the SSA data in 2018:

  • Did not debut: Avicii, Carvena, Chevel, Coco (as a boy name), Cullinan, Ella Mai, Kaavia, Kulture, Mahomes, Majeste, Maquia, Marsai, Nafessa, Osaka, Pineapple, Qira, Ramirez (as a girl name), Reileen, Sanni, Velar, Venom, Villanelle, Xolo, Yanny, Zaxai
  • Did not re-emerge: Cress, Gio, Joji, Jumanji, T’challa

Late Bloomers

Names that were “absent” from 2017’s results, now in 2018:

Plus: Rumi finally rose, and Sircarter unexpectedly surfaced.

What are your thoughts on the results this year? Did anything surprise you?

[Disclaimer: Some of the names above were already moving in the direction indicated, and some were no doubt influenced by more than a single pop culture person/event. I leave it up to you to judge the degree/nature of pop culture influence in each case.]