Name Awesome

Yama

#7,165 in 2025Boys' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Yama has been given to 85 babies in the U.S. since 1989. In 2025 it ranked #7,165 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 12 recorded.

Babies named Yama, 2025

1 in 276,000

Yama over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yama: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Japanese

What Yama means

Yama has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Yama

One of the source’s documented entries for Yama records a meaning of twin.

A separate documented entry treats Yama as a form of Jam. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

Origin, language, and formation

Yama is used in English and Pazeh. Its origins include Japanese.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 85 boys were recorded with the name Yama between 1989 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 12 in 2025; its best national rank was #5,918 in 1991.

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 Yama?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 142,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,165
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yama sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yama. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yamas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yama was born before 1994 — so the typical Yama is around 31 today.

Median birth year
1994
About 31 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
55.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
36.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
85
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 55.3% of all recorded uses (47).

Is Yama 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
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (12)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#5,918
1991

Spellings of Yama

Yama is not the most common spelling — Sam is, with 32.9% against Yama's 0.02%.

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 Yama is used

Across 1910–2025, Yama was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,452,725 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Yama has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Yama around the world

Where Yama 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
    2001–2018
    #4,749
    in 2018
  • France
    2020–2024
    #4,662
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1982–1982
    #424
    in 1982

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

Yama by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,165
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#5,918
1991
Peak year
2025
12 that year
First recorded
1989
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
85
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Yama

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

YamariYameenYaminYamenYamaanYamanRamaJamaYamalYamirYamatoYamelYamilAdamaSamaUsamaObamaTamaOsamaYamYamunguOssamaOussamaYamani

Sibling names for Yama

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 Yama

Top names of 2025, Yama's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1991Boys' names starting with YPashto Boy NamesPashto NamesTibetan Names