Damaya
Feminine
Our calendar is four months out and nobody has fixed it. September means seventh, October eighth, November ninth, December tenth, and they are the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, because the Roman year once began in March. Maia, the goddess who named May, sits just before the point where the arithmetic breaks.
How old is the name Damaya?
Damaya first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Damaya alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 500 people named Damaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Damaya most popular?
Damaya peaked in 2005, reaching #4118 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,244 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maia to Damaya
Our story of Damaya
Our reading is that the Roman goddess is the most concrete of Maya's several possible sources, and her month is worth following. The Roman year originally began in March, which is why the numbered months are all four out: Quintilis was the fifth, Sextilis the sixth, and September through December the seventh to the tenth. When the year was moved to January, the numbers were left where they were, and every European language has carried the error for two thousand years. Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed for Julius and Augustus, which is why July and August break the pattern from the other direction. Maia herself is obscure: an old Italic goddess associated with growth, honored on the first of May, and later confused with the Greek Maia who was the mother of Hermes. The month is named for her, and the name is one of the few pieces of her that survives.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Damaya joins the American Da- prefix to Maya. Maya itself has several unrelated sources: Sanskrit maya, illusion; the Roman goddess Maia, who named the month of May; the Greek Maia, mother of Hermes; and the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. Which a family has in mind is not recoverable, and the prefix carries no meaning at all. It peaks in 2005.
How the name formed
- Maia
- Maya
- Damaya
Pronouncing Damaya
duh-MY-ah
Three syllables, stress on the second. dah-MAH-yah, with the middle vowel open, is also used and follows the Spanish and Sanskrit readings of Maya. Both circulate.
Nicknames for Damaya
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
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 200635 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4118reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%12 in 2025, from 10
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.
Damaya in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois.
Damayas among us
people named Damaya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Damaya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Derika test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Damaya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Derika climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Derika's path sketches the road Damaya is walking now.
Damaya 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
Damaya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Damaya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Maya is a complete and widely used short form.
- The rhythm matches the dominant shape of contemporary girls' names.
- The sound is smooth and easy to repeat.
- Two readings of the middle vowel circulate.
- The prefix carries no meaning.
- Maya on its own is vastly more common.
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What they receive
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Damaya
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Damayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Damaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Damaya in 2025?
- Damaya ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Damaya?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Damaya — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Damaya with classmates?
- Damaya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Damaya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Damaya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Damaya and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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