Kamaiya
A feminine name of Nepali origin meaning "female bonded laborer".
Name Census estimates that about 238 living Americans carry the first name Kamaiya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamaiya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamaiya births was 2006 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamaiya. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kamaiya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
238
~ 1 in 1,440,144 Americans
Peak year
2006
19 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,573
Tracked since 1998
Popularity
Kamaiya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamaiya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 98 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamaiya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamaiya 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 Kamaiya 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 Kamaiya
The name Kamaiya is believed to have its origins in the Sanskrit language, which was the classical literary language of ancient India. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "kamala," which means "lotus flower." This beautiful water lily has held significant symbolic meaning in Hindu mythology and culture for centuries.
In ancient Hindu texts and scriptures, the lotus flower is often associated with purity, spiritual enlightenment, and the divine feminine energy. The name Kamaiya may have been bestowed upon girls as a way to imbue them with these auspicious qualities from birth. The earliest known references to the name can be traced back to ancient Sanskrit literature and religious texts from around the 5th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kamaiya was a renowned Hindu poetess who lived during the 7th century CE in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Her poetic works, which celebrated the divine love between the human soul and the Supreme Being, were widely admired and have been preserved for centuries.
Another notable figure with the name Kamaiya was a 12th-century Buddhist nun and scholar from Nepal. She is credited with translating several important Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into the Newari language, contributing to the preservation and dissemination of these teachings in the region.
In the 16th century, there was a Kamaiya who was a skilled court dancer and entertainer in the royal palace of the Vijayanagar Empire in southern India. Her graceful performances were said to have captivated audiences and earned her great acclaim during her lifetime.
Moving forward in history, a Kamaiya born in 1825 in the Indian state of Bengal became a respected educator and social reformer. She played a significant role in advocating for women's education and empowerment, establishing several schools for girls in her region.
Another Kamaiya, born in 1887 in what is now Pakistan, was a pioneering artist and sculptor. Her intricate stone carvings and sculptures, which often depicted scenes from Hindu mythology, were widely celebrated and can still be found in museums and private collections today.
People
Kamaiya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamaiya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kamaiya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamaiya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 238 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamaiya 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 1,440,144 US residents.
Is Kamaiya a common name?
We classify Kamaiya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamaiya most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamaiya was 2006, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamaiya is about 14 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 Kamaiya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamaiya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamaiya 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 Kamaiya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamaiya 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 Kamaiya 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 common is the name Kamaiya?
Find out how many Americans are named Kamaiya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.