Maiyah
Feminine · “Sanskrit maya”
Maya is four names at once. A Roman goddess who gave her name to May, a Sanskrit term for the illusion that the world is what it appears to be, a Hebrew word for water, and a civilization in Mesoamerica. None of them is related to any of the others.
How old is the name Maiyah?
Maiyah first appears in US birth records in 1995 — 30 years ago. The typical Maiyah alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 600 people named Maiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maiyah most popular?
Maiyah peaked in 2009, reaching #4013 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 6,094 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Where it comes from
From maya to Maiyah
The story of Maiyah
In the Vedanta tradition maya is a technical term of the first importance: the appearance that presents the world as separate, multiple and permanent, when it is none of those. The word does not simply mean a trick. It means the power by which the world seems to be what it seems, and the philosophical work of the tradition is largely about that seeming. Meanwhile the Roman Maia was an old Italic goddess of growth, honored on the first of May, which is why the month is called what it is; the modern Hebrew Maya is generally connected to water; and the Maya of the Yucatan are a people with a writing system and a calendar of their own. Four sources, four unrelated languages, one sound. Maiyah is an American spelling of it, with the glide and the ending both written out.
Meaningscholars disagree
Sanskrit maya, illusion or appearance
Maiyah is a respelling of Maya or Maia, a name with at least four unrelated sources: Sanskrit maya, the appearance that conceals reality; Roman Maia, the goddess of growth after whom May is named; Hebrew mayim, water, behind the modern Israeli name; and the Maya peoples of Mexico and Central America. Which one a family means cannot be read off the spelling. The peak of this form is 2009.
How the name formed
- maya
- Maya
- Maiyah
Related forms: Maya · Maia · Maya
Pronouncing Maiyah
MY-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Maya, Maia and Maiyah are homophones in American speech; the terminal h is a vowel marker and not a sound.
Nicknames for Maiyah
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
- 1995
- Most girls named
- 200938 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4013reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −30.8%9 in 2025, from 13
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.
Maiyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maya in English — spelling variant
- Maia in Greek — related form
- Maya in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Maiyahs among us
people named Maiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Maiyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maiyah
- #10107
- Maiyah on the 2025 chart
- #53
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maiyah went to 9 girls in 2025, but Maya, Maia and Maiya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 4,611, which makes it the 53rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,054 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 349 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Maiyah 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 Lisett test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maiyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lisett climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lisett's path sketches the road Maiyah is walking now.
Maiyah 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
Maiyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maiyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, open and easy in every language that has the name.
- It is current in India, Israel, Latin America and the English-speaking world at once.
- Mai and May are both natural short forms.
- Maya is the standard spelling and much more common.
- The four possible sources give four different meanings.
- This spelling has six letters for two syllables of sound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maiyah
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maiyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Maiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maiyah?
- Maiyah is one of 6 recorded spellings. Maya is the more common one — 3,712 births in 2025 against 9 for Maiyah.
- How popular is the name Maiyah in 2025?
- Maiyah ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maiyah?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Maiyah — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maiyah with classmates?
- Maiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maiyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maiyah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maiyah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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