Head to head · Girls' names
Amaia vs April
#554 vs #542 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
April is a whisker ahead (#542 vs #554 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, April leads 5 measures of 6; Amaia leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Amaia —, April #3768 — April higher
- 1920s: Amaia —, April #2821 — April higher
- 1930s: Amaia —, April #2118 — April higher
- 1940s: Amaia —, April #469 — April higher
- 1950s: Amaia —, April #274 — April higher
- 1960s: Amaia —, April #143 — April higher
- 1970s: Amaia —, April #38 — April higher
- 1980s: Amaia —, April #45 — April higher
- 1990s: Amaia #8488, April #140 — April higher
- 2000s: Amaia #2576, April #288 — April higher
- 2010s: Amaia #1576, April #423 — April higher
- 2020s: Amaia #603, April #521 — April higher
April stood higher in every recorded decade — 12 of 12.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Amaia | April |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | — | #3768 |
| 1920s | — | #2821 |
| 1930s | — | #2118 |
| 1940s | — | #469 |
| 1950s | — | #274 |
| 1960s | — | #143 |
| 1970s | — | #38 |
| 1980s | — | #45 |
| 1990s | #8488 | #140 |
| 2000s | #2576 | #288 |
| 2010s | #1576 | #423 |
| 2020s | #603 | #521 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Amaia
In Basque, "the end"; also read as the Castilian place name Amaya
Two serious readings compete. The Basque word amaia means "end" or "conclusion", and that is the reading most Basque name lists give. The other traces the name to Peña Amaya in the province of Burgos, an ancient hilltop stronghold whose name is older than Spanish and not itself translated. Neither reading has pushed the other out.
Amaya (Peña Amaya, Castile) → Amaya (heroine of Navarro Villoslada's 1879 novel) → Amaia (Basque spelling)
How it traveled
The name owes its modern life to a book: Francisco Navarro Villoslada's historical novel "Amaya, o los vascos en el siglo VIII", published in 1879, whose heroine gave Spanish and Basque families a name they had not been using. Through the twentieth century it spread across the Basque Country and the rest of Spain, where the Castilian spelling Amaya and the Basque spelling Amaia have run side by side ever since.
April
the fourth Roman month, of unknown derivation
Roman antiquarians connected Aprilis to aperire, to open, on the reasoning that buds open then. That is a guess made by people who no longer knew, and modern scholarship treats it as folk etymology; an Etruscan borrowing has also been proposed. Nothing is settled.
Aprilis → April
How it traveled
The standard explanation of April Fools' Day is that France moved New Year from the spring to the first of January in fifteen sixty-four, and that people who went on celebrating in April were mocked as fools. It is repeated everywhere and the evidence does not support it.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Amaia
ah-MY-ah
In Basque and Spanish it is three syllables, ah-MAH-ya, with the stress in the middle and every vowel sounded. American speakers most often say ah-MY-ah, and ah-MAY-ah turns up too. All three are in real use, so it helps to decide which one you want and say it first.
- Maia — The most natural short form in English, and a well-established given name in its own right.
- Ama — Family-level, informal; also an independent given name in parts of West Africa.
- Mai — Informal and clipped; stands alone as a given name in Japanese and Vietnamese.
April
AY-pril
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The Spanish and French forms stress the second syllable, which makes them sound like different names.
- Ape — The front of the name, said APE; used within families.
- Rilla — Built from the back of the name rather than cut from it.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Amaia if you want…
- a name fewer children share#554 in 2025 — amaia will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 11 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itAmaia runs 3 syllables, April 2
Choose April if you want…
- a name most people already know#542 in 2025, 557 babies that year
- a name holding steadyApril is holding its place on the charts
- a name with fewer syllablesApril is 2 syllables to Amaia's 3
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Amaia
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard: five letters, no silent letters, no doubled consonants.
- The Amaya spelling is already known in the US, so people can place the name even when they meet this version for the first time.
- Works without translation in Basque, Spanish and English, and sits easily alongside Maya, Amara and Amelia.
To consider
- Amaya is the more widely recognized spelling in the US, so Amaia will be respelled with a y fairly often — a lifelong small correction rather than a real obstacle.
- Pronunciation genuinely varies: ah-MY-ah, ah-MAH-ya and ah-MAY-ah are all heard. Families who want the Basque three-syllable version usually end up saying so on the first introduction.
- The Basque reading, "the end", strikes some people as an odd thing to name a child. It is worth knowing before a relative looks it up, and the place-name reading is equally defensible.
April
Strengths
- Everybody knows the word, so nothing has to be taught.
- Two syllables with front stress is easy to say and quick.
- It carries a season without being a flower name or a virtue name.
To consider
- It is a month, so a birthday in any other month invites the question.
- Aprille, Apryl and Avril are all recorded and will be written for it.
- The month's own name has no established meaning, so there is nothing solid to report.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Amaia and April in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Amaia and April?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Generation X names (born 1965–1980)
- Month names, from January to December
- Spring names, fresh from the thaw
- all guides
Where Amaia and April each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Amaia or April — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Amaia or April?
- April, in 2025: April ranked #542 with 557 babies; Amaia ranked #554 with 547 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Amaia or April?
- Amaia. Over the last five years Amaia moved up 11 places; April moved down 25 places.
- Which is the older name, Amaia or April?
- Amaia entered the US charts in 1993; April entered the US charts in 1917. On the American record, April is the older name.
- How many people are named Amaia and April?
- About 5,500 people named Amaia are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 231,000 people named April are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Amaias or Aprils in the classroom?
- Amaia will almost certainly be the only one in school. April will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Amaia, April and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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