Likely a modern elaboration of Arabic-style Zana/Zayna forms, associated with beauty and grace.
Zanaya is a modern name that resonates across several naming traditions without being firmly anchored to any single one, which is itself a characteristic of contemporary creative naming. Its sound is influenced by African names like Zanele — a Zulu and Ndebele name meaning they are enough or they are sufficient, a name given to express that a family is now complete — as well as by the broader wave of Z-names that became fashionable in the 1990s and 2000s: Zara, Zaniya, Zendaya, Zariah. The name functions in this sonic family as something warm, flowing, and unmistakably feminine.
The Zendaya connection is worth noting: since the rise of the actress and singer Zendaya Coleman, names in this phonetic neighborhood have gained significant cultural visibility among parents drawn to names that feel both distinctive and connected to contemporary cultural achievement. Zanaya shares the trisyllabic rhythm and the bright vowel sequence that makes Zendaya so memorable, while standing fully as its own name. For many parents, that adjacency is a feature rather than a coincidence.
In African-American naming culture, Zanaya exemplifies the creative synthesis that scholars like Darryl Holloman have described as a form of cultural self-determination — the construction of names that reflect aesthetic preferences, cultural affiliations, and aspirations without being constrained by European naming conventions. The name is beautiful in sound, gives no obvious clue to ethnicity or origin, and arrives without the weight of famous namesakes who might overshadow a child. It is, in the best sense, a blank canvas with a lovely frame.