Kaya
Kaya was given to 206 girls in 2025, #1,133 among girls’ names; 10,976 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,900 Americans named Kaya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 11 and 23.
Kaya dropped 166 places in 2025, the #23 drop among the girls’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kaya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kaya mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Kaya is “a male given name which means “rock””
/kaˈja/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kaya?
#1,133 among girls’ names, 2025
Kaya fell from #860 in 2015 to #1,133 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.18 to 0.13 per 1,000.
561 babies in 2004, the peak
Kaya peaked in 2004, when 561 babies were given it (528 girls, #541 among girls’ names). The 221 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 39% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 206 | #1,133 | 0.13 |
| 2024 | 269 | #967 | 0.17 |
| 2023 | 247 | #1,026 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 254 | #1,019 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 254 | #1,009 | 0.15 |
| 2020 | 236 | #1,056 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 268 | #973 | 0.16 |
| 2018 | 254 | #1,022 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 282 | #937 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 282 | #962 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 326 | #860 | 0.18 |
| 2014 | 264 | #1,000 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 357 | #761 | 0.20 |
| 2012 | 331 | #810 | 0.19 |
| 2011 | 383 | #723 | 0.22 |
| 2010 | 357 | #767 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 426 | #685 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 480 | #641 | 0.25 |
| 2007 | 428 | #684 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 447 | #645 | 0.24 |
| 2005 | 435 | #642 | 0.24 |
| 2004 | 528 | #541 | 0.29 |
| 2003 | 519 | #540 | 0.28 |
| 2002 | 499 | #551 | 0.28 |
| 2001 | 410 | #613 | 0.23 |
| 2000 | 301 | #758 | 0.17 |
| 1999 | 192 | #1,052 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 162 | #1,162 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 133 | #1,308 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 113 | #1,454 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 82 | #1,765 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 71 | #1,981 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 71 | #1,969 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 59 | #2,253 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 54 | #2,364 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 38 | #2,975 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 30 | #3,429 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 29 | #3,338 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 24 | #3,675 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,838 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 19 | #4,203 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 19 | #4,067 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 14 | #4,994 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 15 | #4,804 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,237 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,566 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 14 | #4,940 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 23 | #3,327 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,918 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,781 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 12 | #4,985 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,976 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,851 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,925 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,477 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,006 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,587 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kaya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 10,976 Americans recorded as Kaya, 94% are girls and 6% boys. In 2025 it went to 206 girls and 15 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kaya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kaya, and how old are they?
10,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,976 Americans ever recorded as Kaya. The median Kaya alive today is 18 years old; half are between 11 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 9,062 people named Kaya (8,472 women and girls, 590 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,398 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 110 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 727 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,350 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,670 |
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 Kaya born?
The states with the most babies named Kaya are California, Texas and New York, with 47% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 35 | #848 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 19 | #1,335 | 0.4× |
| New York | 13 | #1,120 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 11 | #830 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 10 | #745 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,494 | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 9 | #716 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 8 | #773 | 1.3× |
| Michigan | 8 | #908 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,172 | 0.7× |
Where Kaya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kaya is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1968 it was given 4.9 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 Kaya 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 174,712 babies since 1880, Kaya is the fourth most given (6.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 221 of their 2,302 babies (9.6%), the third 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 Kaya
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 Kaya and names like it
- Compare Kaya and KayBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKaya peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kaya since 1910.
- Turkish namesWiktionary’s origin for Kaya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Kaya.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kaya alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.