Lamaya
Feminine
Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, and the Romans gave her a month. May is her month, named for a goddess almost nobody remembers, which makes Maya one of the very few names that a calendar still says out loud twelve times a lifetime.
How old is the name Lamaya?
Lamaya first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Lamaya alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 700 people named Lamaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lamaya most popular?
Lamaya peaked in 2008, reaching #3710 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 7,207 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Lamaya
Maya is one of the rare cases where a short sound has landed in four traditions with four separate meanings and none of them borrowed. In Greek she is the eldest Pleiad and a nurse of the gods, and the Romans made her a goddess of growth, gave her the month of May, and sacrificed to her on the first of it. In Sanskrit maya is one of the central words in Hindu and Buddhist thought: the appearance of things, the veil, what has to be seen through. In Hebrew it connects to water. Lamaya puts an unstressed La- in front of all of that, which is a productive American way of making a new name from a familiar one, and which adds sound rather than sense.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The compound has no meaning. Its base, Maya, has an unusual number of unrelated sources: Greek Maia, the Pleiad who gave her name to May; Sanskrit maya, the illusion or appearance that hides what is real; Hebrew mayim, water; and a form of Maria in Spanish and Italian. The La- prefix carries no meaning of its own.
Pronouncing Lamaya
luh-MY-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the prefix unstressed. That is the standard pattern for this whole family of names, so strangers usually get it right first time.
Nicknames for Lamaya
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 200843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3710reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%8 in 2025, from 14
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.
Lamaya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maia in Greek — related form
- Maya in Sanskrit — related form
Lamayas among us
people named Lamaya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Lamaya
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 Felissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lamaya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Felissa climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Felissa's path sketches the road Lamaya is walking now.
Lamaya 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
Lamaya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lamaya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three open syllables with a regular stress pattern people read correctly on sight.
- Maya works immediately as a short form and stands alone.
- Nothing in it is hard to say in English or Spanish.
- The compound has no meaning; only its second half does, and that has four of them.
- Lamaya, Lamya and Lameya all exist, so the spelling will need giving.
- Most people will shorten it to Maya, which is a much commoner name.
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What they receive
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Lamaya
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lamayas 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 Lamaya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lamaya in 2025?
- Lamaya ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lamaya?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Lamaya — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lamaya with classmates?
- Lamaya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lamaya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lamaya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lamaya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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