Azja
A feminine given name of Persian origin meaning "born on the first day".
Name Census estimates that about 34 living Americans carry the first name Azja. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Azja today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Azja births was 1997 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Azja. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Azja. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
34
~ 1 in 10,081,010 Americans
Peak year
1997
7 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2005 SSA rank
#16,849
Tracked since 1996
Popularity
Azja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Azja from the 1990s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 18 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Azja by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Azja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Azja
The name Azja is a Polish spelling variation of the name Asia, which is derived from the Greek word "Asia", referring to the continent of Asia. It is believed that the name originated from the Assyrian word "asu", meaning "to rise" or "to go forth", potentially alluding to the rising of the sun in the East.
The name Azja gained popularity in Poland during the medieval period, when it was introduced through the influence of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It was often bestowed upon girls born in noble families or those with ties to the Byzantine Empire or the Eastern Christian tradition.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Azja can be found in the 12th-century Polish chronicle "Kronika Wielkopolska" (Chronicle of Greater Poland), where it is mentioned as the name of a noblewoman from the Piast dynasty. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Polish aristocracy during this time period.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Azja. One such individual was Azja Tarnowska (1566-1644), a Polish noblewoman and philanthropist who founded a hospital and a school for girls in Tarnów, Poland. Another notable Azja was Azja Lewicka (1876-1967), a Polish writer and translator who was active in the women's rights movement in the early 20th century.
In the realm of literature, the name Azja appears in the works of renowned Polish poets and writers, such as Adam Mickiewicz and Henryk Sienkiewicz. In Mickiewicz's epic poem "Pan Tadeusz" (1834), one of the characters is named Azja, while in Sienkiewicz's historical novel "Ogniem i Mieczem" (With Fire and Sword, 1884), a character named Azja Niezabitowska is introduced.
Another notable figure bearing the name Azja was Azja Paderewska (1868-1954), the wife of the famous Polish pianist and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. She played a significant role in supporting her husband's political and cultural endeavors, and was actively involved in various philanthropic initiatives.
It is worth mentioning that while the name Azja has its roots in Polish culture and history, it has also been adopted and used in other Slavic countries, particularly in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where it has been influenced by the region's cultural and linguistic ties with Poland.
People
Azja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Azja as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Azja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Azja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Azja going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 10,081,010 US residents.
Is Azja a common name?
We classify Azja as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 35 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Azja most popular?
The single biggest year for Azja was 1997, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Azja is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Azja in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Azja a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Azja in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Azja still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Azja in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Azja can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Azja?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.