Maraya
Feminine
Maraya sits between two names that sound alike and are unrelated. Mariah is an English spelling of Maria with an older pronunciation; Moriah is the mountain in Genesis where Abraham goes with Isaac. Both are real, and the modern Maraya is a spelling that steps aside from each of them.
How old is the name Maraya?
Maraya first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Maraya alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 900 people named Maraya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maraya most popular?
Maraya peaked in 2006, reaching #2940 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 2,047 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maria to Maraya
The story of Maraya
English said Maria with a long i for centuries, which is why the King James Bible has Mariah and why old hymns rhyme it with fire; the modern Spanish and Italian pronunciation arrived later. Moriah is a separate name, from the mountain of the binding of Isaac, and Protestant families used it. American parents in the last few decades have written the sound as Maraya, Moriah, Mariyah and Marayah, and which of the two histories a given family means is often not something they have had to decide.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two roads. Mariah is Maria said the older English way, with the stress at the end, and so carries whatever Maria carries, which has never been settled. Moriah is a Hebrew place name, generally connected to a root about seeing or providing, and that reading is also contested. Maraya belongs to neither cleanly.
How the name formed
- Maria
- Mariah
- Maraya
Related forms: Mariah · Moriah · María
Pronouncing Maraya
muh-RY-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the second rhyming with sky. Some families say mah-RAH-yah instead, and the spelling permits it.
Nicknames for Maraya
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 200658 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2940reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- +100.0%26 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.
Maraya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mariah in English — spelling variant
- Moriah in Hebrew — related form
- María in Spanish — related form
Marayas among us
people named Maraya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Maraya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maraya
- #4987
- Maraya on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maraya went to 26 girls in 2025, but Marayah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 929th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,058 places above the chart.
- Maraya26
- Marayah5
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Maraya 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 Tiah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maraya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tiah climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tiah's path sketches the road Maraya is walking now.
Maraya 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
Where Maraya is headed
Maraya should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Maraya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maraya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mara and Maya both work as short forms and are complete names.
- The rhythm is open and carries well when the name is called.
- It connects, on either reading, to a very well-documented name or place.
- Mariah, Moriah, Maraya and Marayah are all in circulation and get written for one another.
- Two pronunciations are in use and the spelling settles neither.
- Its two possible histories are unrelated, so the meaning depends on the family.
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What they receive
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Maraya
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Maraya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maraya?
- Maraya is the most-used spelling in US records — 26 of the 31 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Marayah.
- How popular is the name Maraya in 2025?
- Maraya ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maraya?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Maraya — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maraya with classmates?
- Maraya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maraya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maraya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maraya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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