Semaja
A feminine name thought to mean "listen" or refer to peaceful listening.
Name Census estimates that about 183 living Americans carry the first name Semaja. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Semaja today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Semaja births was 2006 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Semaja. 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
183
~ 1 in 1,872,975 Americans
Peak year
2006
20 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2015 SSA rank
#13,711
Tracked since 1996
Census
Semaja in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 222 people with the first name Semaja, which placed it at #35,960 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
#35,960
National first-name rank
People counted
222
222 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
85.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Semaja
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Semaja is Black at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.3%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Semaja 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 Semaja at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American85.1% · 189
- Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 14
- Two or more races5.9% · 13
- White2.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Semaja
Semaja leans heavily female at 88.1% of total registrations, but 22 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Semaja as a male name
- Ranked #13,711 in 2015
- 5 male births in 2015
- Peak: 2005 (6 births)
Semaja as a female name
- Ranked #14,970 in 2021
- 6 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2004 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Semaja on both sides of the split. Of the 221 people counted with this name, 65 were male (29.4%) and 156 were female (70.6%).
Popularity
Semaja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Semaja 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 122 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
Semaja 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 Semaja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Semaja
The name Semaja is believed to have originated from the Hebrew language. It is a variation of the Hebrew name Shemaiah, which means "the Lord has heard". The name can be traced back to ancient times, with its earliest known mention found in the Old Testament of the Bible.
In the Book of Ezra, one of the priests who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity was named Shemaiah. This biblical figure lived around the 5th century BC. The name Shemaiah was also borne by several other individuals mentioned in the Old Testament, including a prophet during the reign of King Rehoboam.
As the name spread across different cultures and regions, it underwent various spelling variations, leading to the form Semaja. While the name's Hebrew roots are evident, it is possible that the spelling Semaja was influenced by other languages or cultural adaptations over time.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Semaja can be found in the historical records of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 14th century, a nobleman named Semaja of Kanizsa was a prominent figure in the court of King Louis I of Hungary, who ruled from 1342 to 1382.
Another notable individual with the name Semaja was a 16th-century Ottoman scholar and writer from the city of Skopje, now located in North Macedonia. Semaja of Skopje was renowned for his works on Islamic jurisprudence and theology.
In the 17th century, Semaja Hasson was a prominent Jewish merchant and community leader in the city of Livorno, Italy. He played a significant role in the economic and cultural life of the Jewish community during that time.
During the 18th century, Semaja Dubno was a renowned Talmudic scholar and author from the Russian Empire. He wrote several influential works on Jewish law and philosophy, and his teachings had a lasting impact on the Jewish intellectual tradition.
In more recent history, Semaja Ferrell was an American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 1990s and early 2000s. Born in 1976, he played for several teams, including the Los Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons.
People
Semaja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Semaja as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Semaja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Semaja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 183 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Semaja 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 1,872,975 US residents.
Is Semaja a common name?
We classify Semaja as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 185 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Semaja most popular?
The single biggest year for Semaja was 2006, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Semaja is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Semaja in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 222 people with the name Semaja, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,960 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 Semaja 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 Semaja?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Semaja on both sides of the split. Of the 221 people counted with this name, 65 were male (29.4%) and 156 were female (70.6%). 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 Semaja?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Semaja is Black at 85.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.3%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Semaja most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Semaja in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.1% (189 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 Semaja in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Semaja a female name?
Yes, 88.1% of people registered as Semaja 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 Semaja still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Semaja 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 Semaja 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 common is the name Semaja?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Semaja at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.