Vayda is a modern American spelling of Vada and Veda. Veda is the Sanskrit word for "knowledge" and the name of the ancient Hindu scriptures, while Vada, of uncertain origin, was a 19th-century American name revived by the young heroine of the 1991 film My Girl. The y spelling first appeared in the 2000s; Vayda peaked at number 1070 in 2021 and ranks 1457 in 2025, still outside the US top 1000.