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Maija

#11,534 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Maija has been given to 1,189 babies in the U.S. since 1952. In 2025 it ranked #11,534 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 59 recorded.

Babies named Maija, 2025

1 in 414,000

Maija over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Maija: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Maija means

Maija belongs to the name family reached through Maija → Maria → Maria → מרים. Its meaning is “to be bitter”.

Origin, language, and formation

Maija is used in Finnish and Latvian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Maria, Maja, Maia and מרים.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Maija is pronounced /ˈmɑi̯jɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,189 girls were recorded with the name Maija between 1952 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 59 in 1999; its best national rank was #2,455 in 1999.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,998 in 2020 to #11,534 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,901 in 2015 to #11,534 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Maija?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,534
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Maija sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Maija. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Maijas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Maija was born before 1999 — so the typical Maija is around 26 today.

Median birth year
1999
About 26 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
28.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
44.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,189
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 28.2% of all recorded uses (335).

Is Maija rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−760
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,536
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,633
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.73×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
13.6%
Peak was 1999 (59)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,455
1999

Spellings of Maija

Maija is not the most common spelling — Maria is, with 31.3% against Maija's 0.07%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Maija is used

Across 1910–2025, Maija was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 269,746 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 33,333
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in —
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6Washington1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Maija has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Maija around the world

Where Maija ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • France
    2010–2016
    #6,694
    in 2016
  • Canada
    1992–2017
    #2,633
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1958–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Maija by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,534
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,536
Best rank ever
#2,455
1999
Peak year
1999
59 that year
First recorded
1952
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,189
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Maija

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MaiahMaizyMailaMailyMaiseyMaikaMaidaMailynMaisynMaisonMaileMailiMairinMaishaMaisyMaizeyMaiyaMailenMaiteMaileeKaijaMairiMaisaMaiyah

Sibling names for Maija

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Maija

Top names of 1999, Maija's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1999Girls' names starting with MFinnish Girl NamesLatvian Girl Names