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Maja

#3,746 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Maja has been given to 2,049 babies in the U.S. since 1953. In 2025 it ranked #3,746 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2009, with 84 recorded.

Babies named Maja, 2025

1 in 82,900

Maja over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Maja: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Maja means

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

Origin, language, and formation

Maja is used in Danish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovene and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Maria, Maya and מרים.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Hungarian, Maja is pronounced [ˈmɒjɒ].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,049 girls were recorded with the name Maja between 1953 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 84 in 2009; its best national rank was #2,315 in 2011.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,885 in 2020 to #3,746 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,874 in 2015 to #3,746 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 Maja?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 82,900
40 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 40,200
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,746
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
57,449 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Maja 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 57,449 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Maja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Majas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Maja was born before 2007 — so the typical Maja is around 18 today.

Median birth year
2007
About 18 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
31.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
69.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,049
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 31.2% of all recorded uses (639).

Is Maja 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
+266
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+139
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−872
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.66×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
47.6%
Peak was 2009 (84)
Years since peak
16
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,315
2011

Spellings of Maja

Maja is not the most common spelling — Mary is, with 50.8% against Maja's 0.03%.

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 Maja is used

Across 1910–2025, Maja was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 143,515 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in 25,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Colorado1 in 100,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 100,000
  5. 5New York1 in 100,000
  6. 6Connecticut1 in —
  7. 7Michigan1 in —
  8. 8Minnesota1 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. Maja has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Maja around the world

Where Maja 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
    #468
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2002–2025
    #539
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2006–2024
    #253
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    2003–2025
    #247
    in 2025
  • France
    1971–2025
    #3,918
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #27
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,104
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1954–2013
    #818
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Maja

People whose public names include Maja, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Maja in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Maja. Linked forms have their own page here.

MaiaMayaMiyaAmayaMaijaMaaja

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Maja by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,746
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 139
Best rank ever
#2,315
2011
Peak year
2009
84 that year
First recorded
1953
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,049
Count in 2025
40

Names similar to Maja

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

TajaSajaKajaMajestyDajaNajaAjaHajaMajelMajorieRajaMajestiDeajaMajorAnajaAlajaNiajaTiajaMajestaTanajaNyajaDanajaMajesticAdaja

Names with a curve like Maja

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Maja, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

KamaraAlonnaAngelieRaniaChesneySamiaElliAniDaylaZakiyahKamariaMalina

Sibling names for Maja

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 Maja

Top names of 2009, Maja's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2011Girls' names starting with MDanish Girl NamesNorwegian Girl NamesSlovenian Girl NamesSwedish Girl Names