Kaya
Masculine · “rock' in Turkish”
Kaya is given to both — 662 boys and 10,314 girls since 1880. See Kaya as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kaya is a name that four unrelated languages arrived at independently. Turkish kaya means rock; Japanese has Kaya as a plant and a place name; Zulu and Swahili use kaya for a home or homestead; and Hopi has Kaya as a name of its own. Add a 1978 Bob Marley album called Kaya and you have a short word with an unusually crowded history. Its American peak on boys is 2001.
How old is the name Kaya?
Kaya first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Kaya alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Kaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaya most popular?
Kaya peaked in 2001, reaching #1935 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 3,926 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kaya to Kaya
The story of Kaya
Names that are short, open and made of common syllables are the most likely to appear independently in unrelated languages, and Kaya is a textbook case: two syllables, both open, three of the most frequent sounds in human speech. What makes its American history legible is that the different sources arrived at different times and in different communities. Turkish and Balkan migration brought one; East African migration another; Japanese-American families a third. The Marley album of 1978 added a fourth kind of visibility that had nothing to do with any of them. The result is a name used on both sexes in the United States with no single community owning it.
Meaningscholars disagree
'rock' in Turkish; 'home' in several African languages; other readings elsewhere
Several genuine sources, none of which can claim the American name exclusively. Turkish kaya, rock or cliff, is a common surname and given name in Turkey. In Swahili and other Bantu languages, kaya or nyumbani names a home or homestead. Japanese Kaya is written with characters for a kind of grass or a yew tree. Hopi Kaya is a separate name again. The word also names a variety of cannabis in Jamaican usage, which is the sense of the Marley album. A given Kaya may descend from any of these.
How the name formed
- kaya
- Kaya
Related forms: Kaya · Kaya · Kaya · Kaya
Pronouncing Kaya
KY-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the first rhyming with sky. A second saying, KAY-ah, follows the English reading of the letters and is also common in America. Both are current and the spelling does not settle which.
Nicknames for Kaya
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 200156 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1935reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%15 in 2025, from 18
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.
Kaya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kaya in Turkish — same name
- Kaya in Japanese — same name
- Kaya in Swahili — same name
- Kaya in Hopi — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California.
Kayas among us
people named Kaya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Kaya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaya
- #5861
- Kaya on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaya went to 15 boys in 2025, but Kaia is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,953 places above the chart.
- Kaya15
- Kaia5
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Kaya 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 Lelan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lelan climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lelan's path sketches the road Kaya is walking now.
Kaya 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
Kaya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables and sayable in almost every language on earth.
- It works on either sex with no built-in gender signal.
- It has genuine standing in several unrelated cultures, so a bearer can claim a real one.
- Two pronunciations circulate, KY-ah and KAY-ah.
- It is very close to Kai, Maya and Kaia and will be misheard.
- Having several unrelated origins means the meaning question always needs a qualifier.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kaya
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayas 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 Kaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaya?
- Kaya is the most-used spelling in US records — 15 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kaia.
- How popular is the name Kaya in 2025?
- Kaya ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaya?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Kaya — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaya with classmates?
- Kaya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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