Maya
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "illusion" or "magic".
Name Census estimates that about 118,085 living Americans carry the first name Maya. It sits at #51 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maya today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maya births was 2006 (5,053 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Charlie (117,732).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maya. 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 Maya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Maya is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 163 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Maya 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
118K
~ 1 in 2,903 Americans
Peak year
2006
5,053 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2020 SSA rank
#51
Tracked since 1940
Census
Maya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 102,998 people with the first name Maya, which placed it at #542 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
#542
National first-name rank
People counted
103K
102,998 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
34.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maya is White at 41.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.8%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Maya 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 Maya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.5% · 42,782
- Hispanic or Latino23.8% · 24,550
- Black or African American14.7% · 15,191
- Two or more races11.2% · 11,552
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.2% · 8,446
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 477
Gender
Gender distribution for Maya
Out of the 120,002 babies given the name Maya since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Maya as a male name
- Ranked #11,504 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 2003 (13 births)
Maya as a female name
- Ranked #51 in 2024
- 4,220 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (5,047 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maya appears almost entirely female. Of the 103,000 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Maya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maya from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 40,104 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Maya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maya 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 Maya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Maya, while Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,316 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maya
The name Maya has its origins in the Sanskrit language, tracing back to ancient India. It is derived from the word "māyā," which means "illusion" or "magic" in Hindu philosophy. This name was first used in the Vedic period, around 1500-500 BCE, and can be found in sacred texts like the Upanishads and the Puranas.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maya is in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, where it is the name of a celestial being, Maya Danava, who was a skilled architect and builder. The name is also associated with the Hindu goddess of illusion, Mahamaya, who is considered the personification of the cosmic forces that create and sustain the universe.
In the Buddhist tradition, Maya is the name of the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. She was a princess of the Shakya clan and is often depicted in Buddhist art as a symbol of motherhood and compassion.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Maya. One of the most famous is Maya Angelou (1928-2014), an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, who is best known for her autobiographical work "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
Another notable Maya is Maya Plisetskaya (1925-2015), a Russian prima ballerina who was considered one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century. She was renowned for her exceptional technique and dramatic performances.
In ancient Mesoamerica, the Maya civilization, which flourished from around 250-900 CE, was named after the same root word as the name Maya, possibly meaning "illusion" or "magic." While not directly related to the name's Sanskrit origins, this civilization's name has helped popularize the name Maya in modern times.
Other notable Mayas in history include Maya Deren (1917-1961), an American avant-garde filmmaker and choreographer, and Maya Siban (born 1975), a Swedish writer and journalist of Kurdish descent.
The name Maya has transcended cultural and geographic boundaries, carrying with it a rich history and diverse meanings, from illusion and magic to motherhood and artistic excellence.
People
Maya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maya 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
Maya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 118,085 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maya 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 2,903 US residents.
Is Maya a common name?
We classify Maya as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 120,002 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maya most popular?
The single biggest year for Maya was 2006, when 5,053 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maya 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 Maya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 102,998 people with the name Maya, or 34.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #542 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 Maya 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 Maya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maya appears almost entirely female. Of the 103,000 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Maya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maya is White at 41.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.8%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Maya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.5% (42,782 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 Maya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maya a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Maya 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 Maya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maya 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 Maya 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 have the name Maya?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.