Kaja
Feminine · “Greek "pure”
Kaja is a small, sturdy Northern European name that has been in continuous use for centuries without ever needing to be fashionable. It is the Scandinavian and Slovenian short form of Katarina, worn down to two syllables and then treated as complete — the same process that gave English Kate, arriving at a different place.
How old is the name Kaja?
Kaja first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Kaja alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Kaja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaja most popular?
Kaja peaked in 1981, reaching #5254 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 1,584 places below that high. See the whole 1981 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kaja
The story of Kaja
Norwegian and Danish clipped Katarina to Kaja; Slovenian and Croatian arrived at the same spelling independently from Katarina and Karolina; Polish Kaja is usually from Kajetan or from Gaia. Estonian and Finnish have it too. The result is one of those short forms that is native in half a dozen unrelated places at once, which is why it never reads as borrowed anywhere. In the United States it has stayed at the edge of the data since the 1970s, carried mostly by Scandinavian- and Balkan-descended families rather than by fashion.
Meaning
Greek "pure", by way of Katharina
Kaja derives from Katarina, which comes through Latin Catharina from Greek Aikaterine. The Greek name's own origin is genuinely obscure — the connection to katharos, "pure", is a later Christian reinterpretation rather than the original etymology — but it is the reading the whole family has carried for well over a thousand years, and every European form inherits it.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Catharina
- Katarina
- Kaja
Related forms: Kaia · Kaja · Katja · Katie · Катя (Katya)
Pronouncing Kaja
KY-uh
The j is a consonantal y, as in every Northern European and Slavic language that uses this spelling: KY-ah, two syllables, stress on the first. It is not KAH-jah, and the j is never the English sound in jam.
Nicknames for Kaja
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
- 1957
- Most girls named
- 200925 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #5254reached in 1981
- Change vs 2024
- −15.8%16 in 2025, from 19
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.
Kaja in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kaia in Norwegian — spelling variant
- Kaja in Slovenian — same name
- Katja in German — related form
- Katie in English — related form
- Катя (Katya) in Russian — related form
Kajas among us
people named Kaja are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Kaja
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 Neenah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaja's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Neenah climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neenah's path sketches the road Kaja is walking now.
Kaja 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
Kaja beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaja in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and a genuine thousand-year lineage behind it.
- It is native in Norway, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia and Poland, so it travels unusually well.
- It has never been fashionable enough in America to be dated to a decade.
- English speakers reliably say the j as in jam on first sight; the correction has to be made early and often.
- It looks like a respelling of Kaya or Kaia, both of which are more common in the United States.
- Very short names give a child little room to change register between contexts.
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What they receive
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Kaja
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kajas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Kaja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kaja in 2025?
- Kaja ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaja?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaja — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaja with classmates?
- Kaja will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaja
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaja? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaja and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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