Meya
Feminine
Basque is not related to anything. Not to Spanish, not to Latin, not to any Indo-European language and not to any language anywhere else that anyone has been able to demonstrate. It was in the western Pyrenees before Latin arrived and it is still there, and Amaya, the name behind Meya, comes out of it.
How old is the name Meya?
Meya first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Meya alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 800 people named Meya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meya most popular?
Meya peaked in 2006, reaching #2815 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,102 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Amaya to Meya
The story of Meya
Amaya is a hilltop in the province of Burgos with the remains of a fortress on it, and it was the setting a nineteenth-century Spanish novelist chose for a long romance about the Basques in the eighth century. The book was widely read, the heroine's name went into use, and Amaya became a Basque and then a Spanish given name — which is a common route, and the same one that produced several other names in these records. What sits underneath is older than the novel and older than Spanish: a place name in or near a language that has no known relatives. Meya is what happens when that name is shortened at the front and written by ear.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Meya has no established source. The likeliest parents are Amaya, a Basque place name and now a given name, and Maya or Mia, which have separate histories of their own. Amaya's own meaning is not settled: it names a hill and a fortress in northern Spain, and the word behind the place has not been explained.
How the name formed
- Amaya
- Maya
- Meya
Related forms: Amaia · Amaya
Pronouncing Meya
MAY-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. MEE-uh, following the English reading of the e, is also used. The y is a consonant between the two vowels and keeps them from collapsing into one.
Nicknames for Meya
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 200662 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2815reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
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.
Meya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Amaia in Basque — related form
- Amaya in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Meyas among us
people named Meya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Meya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tereza test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tereza climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tereza's path sketches the road Meya is walking now.
Meya 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
Meya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two open syllables, and nothing difficult in either.
- It is short without being a shortening of anything settled.
- Every sound in it is easy in Spanish, Basque and English alike.
- Mia, Maya and Maia are all far commoner and all close enough to be substituted.
- The first vowel is read two ways and the spelling settles neither.
- There is no documented meaning behind it, which is worth deciding about in advance.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Meya
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Meyas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Meya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meya in 2025?
- Meya ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meya?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Meya — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meya with classmates?
- Meya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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