How popular is the baby name Maya in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Maya.

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Popularity of the baby name Maya


Posts that mention the name Maya

Baby names for the end of the world?

Mayan calendar (Haab')

You guys know the world is ending in two weeks, right?

At least, that’s how popular culture has misinterpreted the ending of the 13th b’ak’tun of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar on December 21, 2012.

If your due date is December 21, why not commemorate the date with an “end of the world”-inspired baby name?

No, I’m not suggesting you go with something ridiculous like Armageddon or Apocalypse. (Though I have seen both used as names. Examples: Armageddon James Margerum, born in England in 1833, and Ulysses Apocalypse Johnson, born in California in 1992.)

Instead, try a name with a less obvious “end of the world” connection. Perhaps one of these:

  • Maya – the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is most commonly associated with the Maya
  • Jeremiah – inspired by Maya
  • Nehemiah – inspired by Maya
  • Deedee – short for doomsday
  • Ann – short for annihilation
  • Catherine – inspired by cataclysm
  • Calypso – inspired by apocalypse
  • Arma – short for armageddon
  • Armand – inspired by armageddon
  • Armando – inspired by armageddon
  • Gideon – inspired by armageddon
  • Don – short for armageddon

Or try one of the dozens of names that happen to contain the word “end” (short for “end of the world,” of course).

  • Aviendha
  • Brenda
  • Brendan
  • Enda
  • Ender
  • Endia
  • Erendira
  • Glenda
  • Glendon
  • Glendora
  • Gwendolen/Gwendolyn
  • Henderson
  • Hendrik/Hendrick
  • Hendrika
  • Hendrix
  • Kendall
  • Kendra
  • Kendrick
  • Lavender
  • Legend
  • Mendel
  • Nagendra
  • Penda
  • Pendleton
  • Rajendra
  • Rosenda
  • Rosendo
  • Surendra
  • Townsend
  • Vendela
  • Wendell
  • Wendy
  • Zenda
  • Zendaya

What other “end of the world” baby names can you think of?

Image: Adapted from Mayan Zodiac Circle by theilr under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Feb. 2023]

Top baby names in Israel: Noam, Noa

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the most popular baby names in Israel over the last decade were Noam (for boys) and Noa (for girls).

Other popular baby names were Itai, Uri, Yehonatan, Daniel, David, Ariel and Eden (for boys) and Shira, Maya, Tamar, Talia, Noia and Adi (for girls).

Nathan Jeffay of pop culture blog The Shmooze (part of The Jewish Daily Forward) notes that unisex baby names are all the rage in Israel:

“Can you see Rotem?” [my four-year-old] asks during morning drop-off at kindergarten. I look at each of the girls, believing I’ve already met her and risking his wrath because I have forgotten what she looks like, but no, this Rotem — though it’s a traditional girls’ name — is a boy. A couple of days later, a woman chats to me at the kindergarten gate. “I’m Natanel’s mom,” she says, positive that I know Natanel (the Hebrew form of Nathaniel). The name rings a bell, so out of politeness I say I know how much my son enjoys playing with him. Cover blown: Natanel is a she.

Jeffay also says parents are aiming “for a similar sound with boys’ and girls’ names. That is, a two-syllable format with a modern feel that has a vague Biblical sound without sounding traditional.”

Sources: Most Common Names for Babies in Israel: Noam, Noa, Gender-Bending Baby Names Take Off in Israel

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

Revolutionary baby names in Russia: Ninel, Melor, Traktorina

Revolutionaries firing at Tsarist police during the February Revolution (part of the 1917 Russian Revolution).
Russian revolutionaries (Feb. 1917)

In 1917, Russia experienced two revolutions. The February Revolution (which happened in March) resulted in the monarchy being overthrown and replaced by a provisional government; the October Revolution (which happened in November) resulted in the provisional government being overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

The two revolutions were followed by a bloody civil war, and finally by the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in late 1922.

Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin addressing the public in 1917.
Lenin addressing the public (1917)

This period of social and political upheaval in Russia had an influence on Russian baby names (the same way the French revolution had an influence on French baby names a century earlier.) Most of Russia’s revolution- and socialism-inspired baby names were bestowed in the 1920s and 1930s, but several emerged decades later (during the Space Race, for instance).

Some examples…

NameSignificance/Translation
Ateist“Atheist”
Arvil“Army of V. I. Lenin”
Avangarda“Avant-garde”
Barrikada“Barricade”
BastilThe Bastille, Paris fortress stormed during the French Revolution
BebelAugust Bebel, German Marxist
Buntar“Rebel”
DantonGeorges Jacques Danton, French revolutionary
Dazdraperma“Long live the first of May” (da zdrastvuet pervoye Maya)
Dinamit“Dynamite”
Dinamo“Dynamo,” originally a type of electrical generator
Disizara“Child, follow the Revolution boldly” (ditya, smelo idi za revolyutsiyey)
DonbassDonets Basin, coal-mining area in the Ukraine
Elekrifikatsiya“Electrification”
Elektrostanciya“Power station”
EngelinaFriedrich Engels, co-creator of Marxism
FevralinaBased on February, signifying the February Revolution of 1917
Geniy“Genius”
Gertruda“Heroine of labor” (geroinya truda)
Giotin“Guillotine”
Ideya“Idea”
Ilich; IlinaBased on Lenin’s patronym, Ilyich
Industriya“Industry”
Industrializatsia“Industrialization”
Iskra“Spark”
KazbekMount Kazbek
Kim“Communist Youth International” (Kommunisticheskii Internatsional Molodezhi)
Kommuna“Commune”
Krasnyi“Red”
Kukutsapol“Corn, queen of the fields” (kukuruza, tsaritsa poley)
LagshmivaraSchmidt‘s Arctic camp” (lager’ Shmidta v Arktike)
Lentrosh“Lenin, Trotsky, Shahumyan
Lentrozin“Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev
Leundezh“Lenin died, but his work lives on” (Lenin umer, no delo ego zhivet)
LibknekhtKarl Liebknecht, German socialist executed in 1919
Lorikerik“Lenin, October Revolution, industrialization, collectivization, electrification, radio installation, communism”
Lyuksemburg;
Roza
Rosa Luxemburg, German socialist executed in 1919
MarksKarl Marx, co-creator and namesake of Marxism
Marlen“Marx, Lenin”
MarselezaLa Marseillaise, national anthem of France
MayaBased on May, signifying May 1 (May Day)
Mels“Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin”
Melor“Marx, Engels, Lenin, October Revolution”
Molot“Hammer” — as in “hammer and sickle”
Myuda“International Youth Day”
NinelLenin spelled backwards
Oktyabrin;
Oktyabrina
Based on October, signifying the October Revolution of 1917
Oyushminald;
Oyushminalda
Otto Yulyevich Schmidt on the ice” (Otto Yulyevich Shmidt na l’du)
Parizhkommuna“Paris Commune”
Perkosrak“First space rocket”
Persostrat“First Soviet stratospheric balloon” (perviy sovetsky stratostat)
Pofistal“Conqueror of fascism Joseph Stalin” (pobeditel fashizm Iosif Stalin)
Proletariy“Proletarian”
Pravda“Truth” — the name of the Communist Party newspaper
Pyatvchet“Five-year plan to be fulfilled in four years”
RadiyRadium, the element
RazinStenka Razin, 17th-century Cossack rebel
Revdit“Revolutionary child” (ditya)
Revmir;
Revmira
“Revolutionary peace”
Revolyutsiya;
Revoly;
Lyutsiya
“Revolution”
Revvola“Revolutionary wave” (volna)
RobesperMaximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary
Roblen“Born to be a Leninist” (rodilsia byt’ Lenintsem)
Serpina“Sickle” (serp) — as in “hammer and sickle”
Smena“Shift” or “Change (of workers in a factory)”
Smychka“Union, alliance” — a Soviet political term
SpartakSpartakusbund, Germany’s Spartacus League
StalinaJoseph Stalin
Svoboda“Freedom”
Tekstil“Textile”
Traktor;
Traktorina
“Tractor”
Trolebuzin“Trotsky, Lenin, Bukharin, Zinoviev”
Uryurvkos“Hooray, Yura’s in space” (ura, Yura v kosmose) — a reference to Yuri Gagarin
VanadiyVanadium, the element
Vilora“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, organizer of the revolution” (organizator revolyutsii)
Vilen; VilenaV. I. Lenin
Vladlen;
Vladilen;
Vladlena
Vladimir Lenin
Volya“Will”
YuralgaYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin
Zheldora“Railway”
Zikatra“Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky”

Other baby names of the era weren’t so much political as they were fanciful, e.g., Atlantida (“Atlantis”), Monblan (Mont Blanc), Traviata (the Verdi opera La traviata), and Zvezde (“star”).

It’s also interesting to note that a portion of these parents went in the other direction entirely. Instead of opting for progressive names, they went for “pre-Christian Slavic names such as Mstislav or Sviatopolk that had fallen into disuse in modern times.”

Sources:

[Latest update: 4/2023]

Popular baby names in Norway, 2010

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

The top baby girl and baby boy names in Norway last year were Emma and Lukas — the same as in 2009.

Here are the top ten girl names:

  1. Emma (465 baby girls)
  2. Linnea/Linea (452)
  3. Sara/Sahra/Sarah (426)
  4. Sofie/Sophie (423)
  5. Nora/Norah (411)
  6. Ingrid/Ingerid/Ingri (399)
  7. Thea/Tea (389)
  8. Emilie (387)
  9. Ida (381)
  10. Maja/Maia/Maya (353)

And here are the top ten boy names:

  1. Lukas/Lucas (552 baby boys)
  2. Emil (492)
  3. Mathias/Matias (491)
  4. William (443)
  5. Magnus (435)
  6. Markus/Marcus (428)
  7. Jonas (423)
  8. Kristian/Christian (400)
  9. Oliver (384)
  10. Alexander/Aleksander (380)

And here are a few other interesting facts:

  • 52% of the girls born in 2010 have names that end with -a or -ah.
  • 20% of the boys born in 2010 have biblical names.
  • Mohammad was the most popular baby boy name in Oslo.
  • Norwegian parents seem to be “avoiding names involving the uniquely Norwegian letters of æ, ø and å, which often cause problems and confusion in e-mail addresses and other aspects of a globalized society.”

That last point is particularly interesting. On the one hand, it’s cool that parents are gravitating toward names that will make their children’s lives simpler. On the other, names featuring Scandinavian letters like æ, ø and å represent Norway’s heritage, and it would a shame to see cultural gems like Bjørn and Jørgen fall by the wayside. (Though perhaps it’s inevitable…?)

Sources: Statistics Norway, ‘Emma’ and ‘Lukas’ most popular baby names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)