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The relativistic light-front dynamics (LFD) method has been shown to give a correct description of the most recent data for the deuteron monopole and quadrupole charge form factors obtained at the Jefferson Laboratory for elastic electron-deuteron scattering for six values of the squared momentum transfer between 0.66 and 1.7 (GeV/c) 2 . The good agreement with the data is in contrast with the results of the existing non-relativistic approaches.In this work we firstly make a complementary test of the LFD applying it to calculate another important characteristic, the nucleon momentum distribution n(q) of the deuteron using six invariant functions fi (i = 1, ..., 6) instead of two (S-and D-waves) in the nonrelativistic case. The comparison with the y-scaling data shows the decisive role of the function f5 which at q ≥ 500 MeV/c exceeds all other f -functions (as well as the S-and D-waves) for the correct description of n(q) of the deuteron in the high-momentum region. Comparison with other calculations using S-and D-waves corresponding to various nucleon-nucleon potentials is made. Secondly, using clear indications that the high-momentum components of n(q) in heavier nuclei are related to those in the deuteron, we develop an approach within the natural orbital representation to calculate n(q) in (A, Z)-nuclei on the basis of the deuteron momentum distribution. As examples, n(q) in 4 He, 12 C and 56 Fe are calculated and good agreement with the y-scaling data is obtained.