Ziyi
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Meaning
child of joy (子怡)
The story
Ziyi in this collection reads as child of joy, 子怡, and one bearer carries exactly those characters into film history. Zhang Ziyi rose to international fame in 2000 as Yu Jiaolong in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the film she shared with Chow Yun-fat; her performance drew 12 Best Actress awards, making her the most awarded Chinese actress for a single film. She went on to play Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha, earning Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, and she is regarded as one of the Four Dan actresses of China, the shorthand for the country's leading screen women. Here the romanization and the characters agree for once: her 子怡 is this collection's 子怡. In American records the name is absent. On festival red carpets, it has been read aloud for a quarter-century.
How popular is Ziyi around the world?
In the United States, 10 babies were named Ziyi between 2020 and 2025. In Spain, 140 residents are named Ziyi, ranked 5,942nd among women, with a mean age of 17.5 years.
Ziyi is on the official records of the United States and Spain.
United States
1 in 2.2M
In the United States, 10 babies were named Ziyi between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Ziyi has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Spain
1 in 210,000
In Spain, 140 residents are named Ziyi, ranked 5,942nd among women, with a mean age of 17.5 years.
In Spain, 71 residents are named Ziyi, ranked 10,927th among men, with a mean age of 11.8 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Poland
last on record 2022
Ziyi is not on the 2025 record for Poland, where names given fewer than 2 times in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
First names given to children born in Poland by year of birth, 2000–2025, from the PESEL population register (Ministry of Digital Affairs); exact spellings count separately (Łukasz and Lukasz are different names), names given fewer than 5 times in a year were left off the list through 2012 and fewer than 2 times from 2013, and the register also counts children born abroad, so its yearly sums run above Poland’s live births. Shares divide by the register’s own published total for the year, never by births. Source: Ministry of Digital Affairs, PESEL register (dane.gov.pl)
South Australia
last on record 2014
Ziyi is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Ziyi deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Ziyi truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Ziyi fits with your family’s names and surname.
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