Maia
A feminine given name of Greek origin meaning "great one" or "earth mother".
Name Census estimates that about 17,123 living Americans carry the first name Maia. It sits at #459 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maia today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maia births was 2022 (752 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maia. 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 Maia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
17K
~ 1 in 20,017 Americans
Peak year
2022
752 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#459
Tracked since 1950
Census
Maia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 14,487 people with the first name Maia, which placed it at #1,936 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
#1,936
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
14,487 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maia is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.2%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Maia 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 Maia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.1% · 7,118
- Hispanic or Latino22.2% · 3,210
- Black or African American11.9% · 1,717
- Two or more races10.6% · 1,540
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 848
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 54
Popularity
Maia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maia from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,123 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maia 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 Maia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, New York, Florida recorded the most babies named Maia, while Mississippi, Nebraska, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 345 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maia
The name Maia has its origins in ancient Roman mythology, derived from the name of the goddess Maia, who was the personification of the earth's fertility and an embodiment of the concept of growth. This name is believed to have originated from the Latin word "maius" or "maior," meaning "great" or "larger," reflecting the goddess's role in promoting abundance and growth.
Maia was particularly revered during the month of May, which was named after her in the Roman calendar. In ancient Roman culture, the month of May was associated with the blossoming of spring, and the goddess Maia was celebrated as a symbol of this season's renewal and fertility.
The earliest known reference to the name Maia can be found in the writings of ancient Roman authors, such as Ovid and Virgil, who mentioned her in their works on Roman mythology. Ovid's "Fasti" and Virgil's "Aeneid" both contain references to the goddess Maia and her significance in Roman religious traditions.
Throughout history, the name Maia has been bestowed upon various influential figures. One notable example is Maia, the eldest of the seven sisters known as the Pleiades in Greek mythology. In the 4th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Plato mentioned Maia in his writings, referring to her as the "mother of the divine and lovely Hermes."
Another famous bearer of the name Maia was Maia, the mother of the Roman emperor Augustus (63 BCE - 14 CE), who played a significant role in shaping the Roman Empire during its formative years.
In the 20th century, the name gained popularity with the birth of Maia Plisetskaya (1925 - 2015), a renowned Russian prima ballerina who was considered one of the greatest ballet dancers of her time.
Additionally, Maia Sandu, born in 1972, is the current President of Moldova, serving since 2020. She has played a crucial role in promoting democratic reforms and strengthening Moldova's ties with the European Union.
The name Maia has also been associated with notable figures in the arts and literature, such as Maia Morgenstern, a Romanian actress born in 1962, and Maia Kozeva, a Bulgarian writer born in 1974.
People
Maia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Maia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,123 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maia 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 20,017 US residents.
Is Maia a common name?
We classify Maia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,481 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maia most popular?
The single biggest year for Maia was 2022, when 752 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maia is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 14,487 people with the name Maia, or 4.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,936 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 Maia 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 Maia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maia appears almost entirely female. Of the 14,491 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 Maia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maia is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.2%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Maia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.1% (7,118 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 Maia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maia 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 Maia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maia 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 Maia 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 Maia?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.