Maya
Feminine
Maya is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 123,587 girls against 163 boys since 1880.
Maya reaches English from more than one direction — Sanskrit, Greek, modern Hebrew — and wherever it lands it keeps the same shape in the mouth: two open syllables, nothing to clear the throat over. It has been carried in American letters by the poet Maya Angelou, whose memoirs are still taught in schools, and it appears in the birth records of England, Canada, Scotland and France as well as the United States.
How old is the name Maya?
Maya first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Maya alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 122,000 people named Maya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maya most popular?
Maya peaked in 2023, reaching #49 nationally. Today it ranks #62, 13 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Maya
The oldest written traces are the Sanskrit māyā of Hindu philosophy and the Greek Maia of the Pleiades, two unrelated words that happen to sound alike. Latin took Maia from Greek and attached her to the month of May, which is how the sound stayed alive in Europe long after the goddess faded. Modern Hebrew produced its own Maya, which became one of Israel's standard girls' names in the twentieth century, and Polish, German and Scandinavian families have long used Maja for the same sound. American use draws on all of these at once, which is why two Mayas in the same room may have arrived by completely different routes.
Meaningscholars disagree
Depends on which road you follow: 'illusion' in Sanskrit, 'mother' or 'nurse' in Greek, 'water' in modern Hebrew
These are not rival guesses at one word but several distinct names that arrived at the same spelling. Sanskrit माया (māyā) is a philosophical term for the illusory surface of the world, and Māyā is also the name given in Buddhist tradition to the Buddha's mother. Greek Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes; the Roman Maia gave her name to the month of May. In Hebrew, Maya is generally connected to mayim, 'water'. Slavic Maja and Майя run alongside all of these.
Cultural footprint
Maya Angelou (b. 1928) — Poet of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Lin (b. 1959) — Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at age 21
Maya Rudolph (b. 1972) — SNL great and comedy star
Maya Hawke (b. 1998) — Stranger Things star, daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Pronouncing Maya
MY-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Sanskrit original is closer to MAH-yah, and Polish or German Maja is pronounced the same way as English Maya. The main mix-up is with Mia (MEE-ah), a separate name.
Nicknames for Maya
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
- 1940
- Most girls named
- 20065,047 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #49reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −9.3%3,712 in 2025, from 4,092
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.
Maya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maia in Greek — related form
- Maja in Polish, German, Scandinavian — spelling variant
- מיה in Hebrew — transliteration
- माया in Hindi, Sanskrit — transliteration
- Майя in Russian — transliteration
- Mya in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada, National Records of Scotland, INSEE. Sources
Mayas among us
people named Maya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 433 born in 2025 was named Maya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maya
- #62
- Maya on the 2025 chart
- #53
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maya went to 3,712 girls in 2025, but Maia, Maiya and Mayah 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 — 9 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 349 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 433 for Maya 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 Darlene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darlene climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darlene's path sketches the road Maya is walking now.
Maya 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 Maya is headed
Maya should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Maya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and readable on sight in English, Spanish, German, Polish and Hebrew — few names travel that far without needing a spelling lesson.
- Mia, Maia, Maja and Mya all sit close by, so expect to spell it aloud now and then — the sound alone will not tell people which one you mean.
- The Sanskrit sense, 'illusion', is a philosophical term rather than a compliment, and anyone who knows it may mention it. The Greek and Hebrew readings are just as legitimate.
- Familiar without being everywhere: most people will have heard the name, and a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maya to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maya
Feminine · #62 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 122,000 people named Maya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maya?
- Maya is the most-used spelling in US records — 3,712 of the 4,611 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maia, Maiya, Mayah and Maiah.
- How popular is the name Maya in 2025?
- Maya ranks #62 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,712 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Maya?
- About 1 in every 433 US girls born in 2025 was named Maya — 3,712 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maya with classmates?
- Maya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Clara#63 · Iris#61 · Ruby#64 · Leilani#60 · Adeline#59 · Alice#65 · Leah#58 · Genesis#66
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maya and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Or jump into a head-to-head
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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