Aja
Feminine
Aja is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 8,314 girls against 90 boys since 1880.
Aja is a Sanskrit word, an American album title and a Yoruba name, and the three have nothing to do with each other. Its American rise has a very precise date.
How old is the name Aja?
Aja first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Aja alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 8,200 people named Aja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aja most popular?
Aja peaked in 1978, reaching #412 nationally. Today it ranks #3459, 3,047 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Aja
Ours, offered as ours. Aja is one of the small number of names whose American arrival can be dated almost to the month: a record released in 1977 carried the title, and the name appears in the records in quantity immediately afterwards. That is unusual and worth saying. The Sanskrit and Yoruba words that share the spelling are genuinely old and genuinely unrelated, and the honest position is that three traditions have arrived at three letters independently and only one of them explains the American name.
Meaningnot established
Not established
There is no single source. Sanskrit aja means unborn and is an epithet of Brahma; it also means a goat. Yoruba Aja is the name of a spirit of the forest. The American given name rose sharply after a widely played 1977 album of that title, whose own source the musicians described as a friend's name.
Pronouncing Aja
AH-zhah
Two syllables, first stressed, with the zh of measure. Some families say AY-jah.
Nicknames for Aja
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 1978491 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #412reached in 1978
- Change vs 2024
- −34.3%44 in 2025, from 67
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aja in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aja in Sanskrit — related form
- Aja in Yoruba — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Ajas among us
people named Aja are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 36,529 born in 2025 was named Aja
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aja
- #3459
- Aja on the 2025 chart
- #903
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aja went to 44 girls in 2025, but Ajah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 57, which makes it the 903rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,556 places above the chart.
- Aja44
- Ajah13
About 1 girl in 28,198 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,529 for Aja itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Enid test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aja's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Enid climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Enid's path sketches the road Aja is walking now.
Aja sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aja is headed
Aja should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aja beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aja in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters — about as short as a name can be.
- AJ is a ready initial-based form that works at any age.
- Open vowels make it easy in a great many languages.
- The middle consonant is genuinely unsettled between zh and j.
- Asia and Aja are close enough to be confused in speech and writing.
- There is no single meaning, so the honest answer names three traditions.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Aja to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Aja? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Aja
Feminine · #3459 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ajas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,200 people named Aja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aja?
- Aja is the most-used spelling in US records — 44 of the 57 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ajah.
- How popular is the name Aja in 2025?
- Aja ranks #3459 among US girl names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aja?
- About 1 in every 36,529 US girls born in 2025 was named Aja — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aja with classmates?
- Aja will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aja
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janey#3459 · Devon#3459 · Nitya#3459 · Zayah#3459 · Lively#3459 · Kynsley#3459 · Anaiya#3459 · Ena#3459
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aja? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aja and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle