Maiah
A feminine name of uncertain origins, potentially derived from Maya or Mary.
Name Census estimates that about 1,039 living Americans carry the first name Maiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maiah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maiah births was 1998 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maiah. 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 Maiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maiah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 329,889 Americans
Peak year
1998
63 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,224
Tracked since 1992
Census
Maiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 885 people with the first name Maiah, which placed it at #13,587 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
#13,587
National first-name rank
People counted
885
885 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maiah is White at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.7%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Maiah 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 Maiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.4% · 331
- Hispanic or Latino34.7% · 307
- Black or African American12.9% · 114
- Two or more races9.7% · 86
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Maiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 392 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Maiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maiah 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 Maiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Maiah, while Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maiah
The name Maiah has its origins in the Hebrew language and is a variant of the name Maia. It is believed to have emerged during the ancient period of the Middle East, around the time of the Old Testament.
Maiah is derived from the Hebrew word "mayim," which means "water" or "spring." The name is thought to have been given to children as a symbol of life, purity, and renewal, much like the life-giving properties of water.
In ancient Hebrew texts and scriptures, the name Maiah is not explicitly mentioned. However, the root word "mayim" appears frequently, particularly in references to rivers, wells, and other water sources that held significant cultural and religious significance.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Maiah can be traced back to the 16th century, where it appears in various historical records and documents from the Middle Eastern region. Among the notable historical figures who bore this name was Maiah bint Talha, a 7th-century Arab woman known for her poetry and literary contributions during the early Islamic era.
Another historical figure with the name Maiah was Maiah al-Qurashi, a 9th-century Islamic scholar and jurist from Cordoba, Spain. Her contributions to the field of Islamic jurisprudence and legal studies were highly regarded during her time.
In the 17th century, Maiah Sultana was a prominent figure in the Ottoman Empire. She was a concubine of Sultan Murad IV and later became the chief consort of Sultan Ibrahim I, playing an influential role in the Ottoman court.
Moving forward to the 19th century, Maiah Khanum was a renowned Afghan poet and writer. Her works were widely celebrated and contributed significantly to the literary landscape of Afghanistan during her lifetime.
Lastly, in the early 20th century, Maiah Saidi was a pioneering Egyptian feminist and activist who fought for women's rights and social reforms. She was a prominent figure in the Egyptian feminist movement and played a crucial role in advancing the cause of gender equality in her country.
People
Maiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maiah 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
Maiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,039 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maiah 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 329,889 US residents.
Is Maiah a common name?
We classify Maiah as "Rare". It ranks above 90.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,053 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Maiah was 1998, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maiah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 885 people with the name Maiah, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,587 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 Maiah 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 Maiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maiah appears almost entirely female. Of the 887 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Maiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maiah is White at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.7%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Maiah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.4% (331 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 Maiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maiah 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 Maiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maiah 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 Maiah 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 Maiah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.