Kamiya
A Japanese name derived from "kami" meaning "god" or "divinity".
Name Census estimates that about 3,238 living Americans carry the first name Kamiya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamiya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamiya births was 2008 (185 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamiya. 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 Kamiya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kamiya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 105,854 Americans
Peak year
2008
185 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,866
Tracked since 1984
Census
Kamiya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,049 people with the first name Kamiya, which placed it at #7,448 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,448
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,049 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamiya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamiya is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and Hispanic (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kamiya described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kamiya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.1% · 1,683
- Two or more races8.6% · 176
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 95
- White3.1% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 8
Popularity
Kamiya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamiya from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,481 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamiya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamiya 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 Kamiya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamiyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Kamiya, while Arizona, Kentucky, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamiya
The name Kamiya has its roots in Japanese culture and language. It is a feminine name that is believed to have originated from the combination of two Japanese words: "kami," meaning "divine" or "spiritual," and "ya," meaning "house" or "dwelling." The name Kamiya, therefore, can be interpreted as "a house or dwelling of the divine" or "a spiritual abode."
In ancient Japanese mythology and folklore, kami referred to the deities or spiritual forces that were believed to reside in various aspects of nature, such as mountains, rivers, trees, and even in human beings. The concept of kami was central to the Shinto religion, which is one of the oldest and most prominent belief systems in Japan.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Kamiya can be traced back to the 8th century CE, during the Nara period (710-794 CE) in Japan. This era was marked by the flourishing of Japanese literature, arts, and culture, heavily influenced by the introduction of Buddhism from China and the Korean peninsula.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Kamiya was Kamiya no Masahiro, a Japanese poet and courtier who lived during the late Heian period (794-1185 CE). His poetry was included in the prestigious imperial anthology "Shoku Gosen Wakashū," compiled in the 13th century.
Another notable figure was Kamiya Sotan (1552-1635), a renowned Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and calligrapher during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1603 CE). He is celebrated for his influential contributions to the development of the Shoin-zukuri architectural style, which was widely adopted in the construction of traditional Japanese houses and temples.
In the realm of Japanese literature, Kamiya Mieko (1914-1979) was a prominent novelist and essayist who explored themes of identity, family dynamics, and the experiences of women in modern Japan. Her works, such as "Akai Tori" (The Red Bird) and "Shiokari Toge" (The Saltlick Crest), earned her critical acclaim and numerous literary awards.
Kamiya Hiroshi (1924-2001) was a distinguished Japanese historian and scholar of Japanese culture and society. He was renowned for his extensive research on the Edo period (1603-1868 CE) and the role of merchants and urban culture during that time. His works, including "Tokugawa Rinseishi" (History of the Tokugawa Populace), provided valuable insights into the social and economic aspects of Japan's past.
In the field of sports, Kamiya Naoki (born 1983) is a notable Japanese professional baseball player who has played for the Yomiuri Giants, one of the most successful teams in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. He has been a valuable pitcher for the Giants and has contributed to their numerous championship victories.
People
Kamiya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamiya 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
Kamiya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamiya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,238 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamiya 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 105,854 US residents.
Is Kamiya a common name?
We classify Kamiya as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,272 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamiya most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamiya was 2008, when 185 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamiya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamiya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,049 people with the name Kamiya, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,448 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kamiya in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kamiya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamiya appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,038 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kamiya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamiya is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and Hispanic (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kamiya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamiya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (1,683 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
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 Kamiya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamiya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamiya 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 Kamiya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamiya 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 Kamiya 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.
How many people share the name Kamiya?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.