Maika
Feminine
Maika is given to both — 507 girls and 251 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Maika lands on the same five letters from at least three directions. It is a Japanese given name written with characters meaning dance and fragrance among other combinations; it is a Spanish blend of María and Karmen or Karina; and it is a Hungarian and Basque form. None of them is the source of all the others.
How old is the name Maika?
Maika first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Maika alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 500 people named Maika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maika most popular?
Maika peaked in 2008, reaching #5955 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 1,178 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From María del Carmen to Maika
The story of Maika
Japanese naming works differently from European naming in a way that matters here: the sound of a name and its meaning are separable, because the same sound can be written with different characters and each set carries a different sense. A Japanese Maika's meaning is a property of her paperwork, not of the syllables. Spanish blends work differently again — Maika from María del Carmen is a contraction like Marilú from María Luisa. The American data records only the letters, which is why the 2008 peak cannot be assigned to any one tradition.
Meaningnot established
Depends on the source: Japanese by written characters, or a Spanish blend of two names
Japanese names take their meaning from the characters chosen, not from the sound, so Maika can mean many things depending on how it is written — dance and fragrance is one common combination. Spanish Maika is a contraction of María del Carmen or María Karina and carries only what those carry. Basque Maika is a form of María. No single reading applies.
How the name formed
- María del Carmen
- Maika
Related forms: 舞香 (Maika) · Maika · Maika
Pronouncing Maika
MY-kah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ai as a long I. Japanese gives three moras and no stress accent as English understands it. Spanish gives MY-kah too, so the two readings converge in sound even though they diverge in everything else.
Nicknames for Maika
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 200823 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #5955reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −6.3%15 in 2025, from 16
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.
Maika in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 舞香 (Maika) in Japanese — related form
- Maika in Spanish — same name
- Maika in Basque — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Maikas among us
people named Maika are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Maika
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maika
- #7133
- Maika on the 2025 chart
- #940
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maika went to 15 girls in 2025, but Mayka is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 940th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,193 places above the chart.
- Maika15
- Mayka5
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Maika 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 Kamera test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maika's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kamera climbed just as high around 1993, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kamera's path sketches the road Maika is walking now.
Maika 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
Maika beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maika in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine name in Japanese, Spanish and Basque rather than a construction.
- It is short, five letters, and easy to say in every language that uses it.
- Mai is available as a complete short form.
- No single meaning can be given; it depends entirely on the family's tradition.
- English readers will guess MAY-kah from the spelling.
- It will be confused with Micah, which is a Hebrew men's name.
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What they receive
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Maika
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maikas 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 Maika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maika?
- Maika is the most-used spelling in US records — 15 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mayka.
- How popular is the name Maika in 2025?
- Maika ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maika?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Maika — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maika with classmates?
- Maika will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maika
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maika? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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