Senja

Girls' name

Hospitable

Senja has been given to 16 babies in the U.S. since 1989. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2006, with 6 recorded.

Babies named Senja, 2017

1 in 715,000

Senja over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Senja: meaning, origin, and history

Hospitable

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Senja means

Senja means “hospitable”, associated with xenía.

Origin, language, and formation

Senja is used in Finnish.

Senja comes through Ancient Greek ξενία.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Senja is pronounced /ˈsenjɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 16 girls were recorded with the name Senja between 1989 and 2017. Its highest annual count was 6 in 2006; its best national rank was #14,061 in 1989.

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 Senja?

Senja had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2017, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2017: 1 in 715,000; 5 of 3,577,106 births
Among girls only: 1 in 345,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2017: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 495,893 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Senja 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 2017 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 495,893 children born in 2017 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Senja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Senjas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Senja was born before 2006 — so the typical Senja is around 19 today.

Median birth year: 2006; About 19 years old
Biggest decade: 2000s; 37.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 68.8%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 16; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2000s — 37.5% of all recorded uses (6).

Is Senja 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 2006 (6)
Years since peak: 19; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Not enough data; Too few years
Best rank ever: #14,061; 1989

Spellings of Senja

Senja is not the most common spelling — Jenna is, with 17.6% against Senja's <0.01%.

Jenna17.6%148,587
Lena17.4%146,479
Sonia7.9%66,747
Sonya7.8%65,772
Sienna4.7%39,877
Sonja4.7%39,513
Rena4.6%39,124
Dena3.9%32,479

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.

Senja by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #14,061; 1989
Peak year: 2006; 6 that year
First recorded: 1989
Last recorded: 2017
All-time count: 16
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Senja

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

Senda Senua Senada Senara Sendi Senga Seneka Sensi Senai Senica Senika Ninja Senie Senoria Tunja Sunja Senait Senona Senyah Seniqua Senetta Senobia Senida Senequa

Sibling names for Senja

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

For a sister

Taniya Melia Jazmyne Jayna Nyasia Tayla Lanie Estefany

For a brother

Paulo Yair Lavon Tye Deshaun Oswaldo Nathen Britton

Explore around Senja

Top names of 2006, Senja's peak year The 2000s in full Other names that peaked in 1989 Girls' names starting with S Finnish Girl Names