Zaia is a short, modern-sounding name with more than one source. Assyrian Christian families use it after Mar Zaia, a saint venerated in their church since late antiquity, while other parents arrive at it as a fresh spelling of Zaya or as a sister name to Zara and Zoya; it has no single established meaning, though some link it to the Arabic Zia, "light". Zaia had fewer than five births in 2000, rose through the 2010s to a peak at number 1723 in 2023 and ranks number 2644 in 2025 with 66 girls.