Moya
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "my" or "mine".
Name Census estimates that about 529 living Americans carry the first name Moya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Moya today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Moya births was 2003 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Moya. 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.
People living today
529
~ 1 in 647,929 Americans
Peak year
2003
19 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2021 SSA rank
#16,904
Tracked since 1923
Popularity
Moya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Moya from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 125 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Moya 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 Moya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Moyas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Moya
The name Moya is believed to have its origins in the Slavic languages, specifically Russian and Ukrainian. It is derived from the Old Church Slavonic word "moya," which translates to "mine" or "my own." The name gained popularity in the 10th and 11th centuries during the Christianization of the Kievan Rus', the medieval East Slavic state.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Moya can be found in the Laurentian Codex, a medieval Russian chronicle compiled in the 14th century. The chronicle mentions a woman named Moya who lived in the 11th century and was the wife of a prominent nobleman.
In the 16th century, Moya was the name of a Russian noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to Tsar Ivan the Terrible. She is mentioned in several historical accounts of the Tsar's court and is said to have had a significant influence on the ruler.
During the 19th century, the name Moya gained popularity among the Russian aristocracy. One notable figure was Moya Mikhailovna Lermontova (1795-1875), a Russian noblewoman and the mother of the renowned poet Mikhail Lermontov.
Another historical figure with the name Moya was Moya Martemyanovna Plisetskaya (1925-2015), a renowned Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. She was considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century and was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet.
In the realm of literature, Moya is the name of a character in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The character, Moya Pavlovna Smerdiashchaia, is a young woman who is involved in a scandalous affair with one of the novel's main characters.
While the name Moya has Slavic origins, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and languages, particularly in Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia. However, the majority of historical references and notable figures bearing the name Moya can be traced back to its Slavic roots.
People
Moya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Moya 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
Moya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Moya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 529 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Moya 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 647,929 US residents.
Is Moya a common name?
We classify Moya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 627 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Moya most popular?
The single biggest year for Moya was 2003, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Moya is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Moya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Moya 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.
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.