Marja
Marja was last recorded in 1999, when 6 babies were given it; 437 Americans have been recorded with it between 1921 and 1999 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marja by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Marja mean?
Wiktionary, Dutch section
Marja is “a female given name”
Variant of Maria.
/ˈmɑr.jaː/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Dutch section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Marja?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #13,771, in 1999; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
45 babies in 1978, the peak
Marja peaked in 1978, when 45 girls were given it, #2,109 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 6 | #13,771 | 3.4 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,114 | 3.4 |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,852 | 2.8 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,209 | 4.9 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,492 | 3.2 |
| 1990 | 6 | #12,314 | 3.2 |
| 1989 | 5 | #13,706 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,890 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,412 | 4.0 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,344 | 3.5 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 13 | #5,555 | 7.6 |
| 1984 | 18 | #4,258 | 10.7 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,512 | 6.0 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,406 | 7.7 |
| 1981 | 15 | #4,865 | 9.0 |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,240 | 10.8 |
| 1979 | 19 | #3,987 | 11.8 |
| 1978 | 45 | #2,109 | 29.4 |
| 1977 | 27 | #2,966 | 17.6 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,648 | 4.8 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,022 | 4.1 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,770 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,357 | 4.1 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,513 | 3.6 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,607 | 4.1 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,610 | 4.0 |
| 1964 | 9 | #4,851 | 4.7 |
| 1963 | 10 | #4,436 | 5.2 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,636 | 3.6 |
| 1961 | 12 | #3,924 | 5.9 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,653 | 4.5 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,877 | 4.0 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,852 | 3.0 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,775 | 3.9 |
| 1956 | 11 | #3,827 | 5.5 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,607 | 4.1 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,520 | 3.1 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,436 | 3.2 |
| 1952 | 8 | #4,352 | 4.3 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,585 | 4.1 |
| 1949 | 9 | #3,788 | 5.3 |
| 1948 | 7 | #4,474 | 4.1 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,269 | 4.5 |
| 1943 | 5 | #5,107 | 3.6 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,614 | 4.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marja a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marja has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Marja: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marja, and how old are they?
An estimated 387 Americans named Marja and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (89% of everyone recorded); the median is 48 years old and half are between 43 and 63. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 759 people named Marja (750 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 401 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.9 times 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,768 babies since 1880, Marja is the fifth most given (4.1% of them).
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 Marja
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 Marja and names like it
- Compare Marja and MaryjoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sMarja peaked in 1978.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marja since 1910.
- Dutch namesWiktionary’s origin for Marja: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Marja.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Marja alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.