Marija
Feminine · “beloved or bitter”
Marija is Mary as Lithuanian, Latvian, Croatian, Slovene and Serbian all write it in Latin letters, so the Baltic and the South Slavic languages meet at the same six letters. One Lithuanian Marija changed how archaeologists think about the first Indo-European speakers: Marija Gimbutas, who argued that they spread from the steppes north of the Black Sea.
How old is the name Marija?
Marija first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Marija alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 500 people named Marija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marija most popular?
Marija peaked in 1975, reaching #4141 nationally. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Marija
The story of Marija
Marija Gimbutas was born in Vilnius in 1921, left Lithuania during the Second World War, and built her career in the United States, much of it at UCLA. In 1956 she proposed what became known as the Kurgan hypothesis: that the speakers of the ancestral Indo-European language were herders from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, named for the burial mounds, kurgans, that they left behind. Her later books on a goddess-centered Old Europe remain disputed, but the steppe homeland she argued for has found strong support in ancient-DNA studies published since 2015.
Meaningscholars disagree
beloved or bitter, from Hebrew Miryam
Marija is the local form of Maria, from the Hebrew Miryam. The meaning of Miryam has never been settled: one reading links it to an Egyptian word for beloved, another to the Hebrew for bitter, and neither has won.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Maria
- Marija
Related forms: Marija · Marija · Marija · Mary · María
Pronouncing Marija
mah-REE-yah
The j is said like the y in yes in every language that uses this spelling. English readers who take it as the j of jam will say ma-REE-jah until they hear it.
Nicknames for Marija
High
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
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 201020 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4141reached in 1975
- Change vs 2022
- −16.7%5 in 2024, from 6
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.
Marija in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marija in Lithuanian — same name
- Marija in Croatian — same name
- Marija in Latvian — same name
- Mary in English — related form
- María in Spanish — related form
Marijas among us
people named Marija are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Marija sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Mary in a form that is native to at least five European languages, so it reads as at home in Lithuanian, Latvian and Croatian families alike.
- A distinguished scholar carried this exact spelling.
- Maja and Mara are easy short forms in English.
- Most Americans will read the j as in jam until they hear the name said.
- Forms and databases sometimes flatten it to Maria, which is close enough to be accepted and different enough to matter to the family.
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What they receive
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Marija
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marijas 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 Marija are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marija in 2025?
- Marija is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marija with classmates?
- Marija will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marija? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marija and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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