Aya
Aya was given to 449 girls in 2025, #644 among girls’ names; 7,987 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,920 Americans named Aya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Aya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Aya is “a female given name from Japanese.”
Borrowed from Japanese あや (Aya).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Aya?
#644 among girls’ names, 2025
Aya rose from #893 in 2015 to #644 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.17 to 0.28 per 1,000.
469 babies in 2024, the peak
Aya peaked in 2024, when 469 girls were given it, #630 among girls’ names. The 449 births of 2025 are 96% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 449 | #644 | 0.28 |
| 2024 | 469 | #630 | 0.29 |
| 2023 | 415 | #695 | 0.26 |
| 2022 | 388 | #746 | 0.24 |
| 2021 | 351 | #803 | 0.21 |
| 2020 | 345 | #789 | 0.21 |
| 2019 | 384 | #738 | 0.23 |
| 2018 | 368 | #749 | 0.22 |
| 2017 | 350 | #785 | 0.20 |
| 2016 | 327 | #861 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 309 | #893 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 272 | #982 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 236 | #1,048 | 0.13 |
| 2012 | 253 | #1,001 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 222 | #1,111 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 235 | #1,056 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 214 | #1,175 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 209 | #1,216 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 206 | #1,215 | 0.11 |
| 2006 | 176 | #1,328 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 179 | #1,259 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 176 | #1,239 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 161 | #1,290 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 177 | #1,161 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 171 | #1,192 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 110 | #1,600 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 93 | #1,732 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 86 | #1,798 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 87 | #1,747 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 56 | #2,342 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 58 | #2,277 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 49 | #2,542 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 46 | #2,636 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 43 | #2,774 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 33 | #3,303 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 36 | #3,074 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 20 | #4,525 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 22 | #4,015 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 27 | #3,341 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 20 | #4,041 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 17 | #4,470 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 22 | #3,619 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,485 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,229 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,359 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,260 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,226 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 12 | #5,239 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 15 | #4,445 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,353 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,801 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,522 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,614 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Aya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Aya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Aya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aya, and how old are they?
7,920 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,987 Americans ever recorded as Aya. The median Aya alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 7,553 people named Aya (7,507 women and girls, 46 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,609 born in the U.S. The Census count is 35% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 74 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 479 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,730 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,640 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Aya born?
The states with the most babies named Aya are California, Texas and New York, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 57 | #566 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 46 | #665 | 0.6× |
| New York | 41 | #422 | 1.4× |
| Michigan | 37 | #245 | 2.7× |
| Illinois | 27 | #385 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 19 | #829 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 18 | #438 | 1.6× |
| Massachusetts | 17 | #339 | 1.5× |
| New Jersey | 15 | #502 | 1.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #654 | 0.9× |
Where Aya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aya is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1972 it was given 2.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Aya with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 22,859 babies since 1880, Aya is the second most given (35% of them). In 2025 it was given to 449 of their 866 babies (52%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Aya
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Aya and names like it
- Compare Aya and AjaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAya peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aya since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Aya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Aya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Aya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.