Vanja

Girls' name

Ivan's, through Ваня

Vanja has been given to 5 babies in the U.S. since 2003. 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 2003, with 5 recorded.

Babies named Vanja, 2003

1 in 760,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Vanja: meaning, origin, and history

Ivan's, through Ваня

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Vanja means

Vanja belongs to the name family reached through Vanja → Ваня → Ива́н. Its meaning is “Ivan's”.

Origin, language, and formation

Vanja is used in Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian and Swedish.

Vanja comes through Russian Ваня.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ива́н and Ваня.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Serbo-Croatian, Vanja is pronounced /ʋâɲa/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Vanja between 2003 and 2003. Its highest annual count was 5 in 2003; its best national rank was #18,294 in 2003.

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 Vanja?

Vanja had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2003, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2003: 1 in 760,000; 5 of 3,801,425 births
Among girls only: 1 in 365,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2003: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 526,991 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Vanja 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 2003 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 526,991 children born in 2003 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Vanja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Vanjas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Vanja was born before 2003 — so the typical Vanja is around 22 today.

Median birth year: 2003; About 22 years old
Biggest decade: 2000s; 100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 5; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2000s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (5).

Is Vanja 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 2003 (5)
Years since peak: 22; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Not enough data; Too few years
Best rank ever: #18,294; 2003

Spellings of Vanja

Vanja is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 42.8% against Vanja's <0.01%.

Anna42.8%914,859
Wanda13.2%281,214
Dana9.1%193,555
Tanya5.5%116,855
Ana5.2%111,359
Lana2.7%57,434
Jana2.2%46,185
Hanna2.0%42,005

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.

Vanja around the world

Where Vanja 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.

Norway
1880–2019
#496
in 2019
South Australia
1998–1998
#710
in 1998

Popularity data from Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Vanja 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: #18,294; 2003
Peak year: 2003; 5 that year
First recorded: 2003
Last recorded: 2003
All-time count: 5
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Vanja

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

Vanie Vancy Vaneda Vandra Vanyah Vanise Vaneka Vanika Danja Monja Vananh Vanteen Vanness Vandrea Vanitie Vanasia Vanadey Vang Vanisa Vandela Vanaya Vanae Vandi Vanora

Sibling names for Vanja

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

Shreya Anastacia Delanie Abigale Ashtyn Hailie Kayli Sydnee

For a brother

Alexandre Jair Keven Kadin Estevan Dallin Keon Zakary

Explore around Vanja

Top names of 2003, Vanja's peak year The 2000s in full Other names that peaked in 2003 Girls' names starting with V