Amaia
Feminine · “In Basque”
Amaia is the Basque spelling of a name that a nineteenth-century Spanish novel lifted out of the mountains of Navarre and handed to the wider world. It is three open vowels and two soft consonants — a-ma-ia — a name that stays entirely in the front of the mouth. In the US it arrived recently and quietly, familiar in shape to anyone who already knows Maya or Amara, yet still rare enough to belong to one child in a school.
How old is the name Amaia?
Amaia first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Amaia is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,500 people named Amaia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amaia most popular?
Amaia peaked in 2025, reaching #554 nationally. Today it ranks #554, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Amaya (Peña Amaya, Castile) to Amaia
The story of Amaia
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. Basque orthography has no letter y in native words, so Amaia is the form used at home in Bilbao and San Sebastián. It reached American records much later, carried mainly by Spanish-speaking families, and has kept a modest, level presence rather than a boom.
Meaningscholars disagree
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.
How the name formed
- AmayaPeña Amaya, Castile
- Amayaheroine of Navarro Villoslada's 1879 novel
- AmaiaBasque spelling
Related forms: Amaia · Amaya · Amaya
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Amaia
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
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 2025547 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #554reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +9.2%547 in 2025, from 501
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.
Amaia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Amaia in Basque — same name
- Amaya in Spanish — spelling variant
- Amaya in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, New York.
Amaias among us
people named Amaia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,938 born in 2025 was named Amaia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Amaia
- #554
- Amaia on the 2025 chart
- #105
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Amaia went to 547 girls in 2025, but Amaya, Amayah and Amaiah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 2,743, which makes it the 105th most-given girls’ name of the year — 449 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 586 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,938 for Amaia 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 Arely test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amaia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arely climbed just as high around 2007, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arely's path sketches the road Amaia is walking now.
Amaia 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 Amaia is headed
Amaia 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.
Amaia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amaia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Maia gives it a ready-made short form that also stands on its own.
- 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.
- It is rare enough that your child will likely be the only one she meets — lovely in a classroom, occasionally tiring at a doctor's desk.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Amaia
Feminine · #554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amaias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Amaia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Amaia?
- Amaia is one of 6 recorded spellings. Amaya is the more common one — 1,723 births in 2025 against 547 for Amaia.
- How popular is the name Amaia in 2025?
- Amaia ranks #554 among US girl names in 2025, with 547 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amaia?
- About 1 in every 2,938 US girls born in 2025 was named Amaia — 547 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amaia with classmates?
- Amaia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amaia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alexis#554 · Emerie#553 · Kamryn#556 · Fernanda#551 · Frankie#551 · Stephanie#557 · Jacqueline#558 · Danielle#549
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amaia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amaia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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