Vanya
Vanya was given to 75 girls in 2025, #2,408 among girls’ names; 1,279 Americans have been recorded with it since 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,250 Americans named Vanya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Vanya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Vanya mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Vanya is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the senses “Johnny” (Ва́ня) and “John” (Іван).
Also “a transliteration of the pet form of the Russian male given name from Russian or Ukrainian Ива́н (Iván), Іван (Ivan).”
Romanization of Russian and Ukrainian Ва́ня (Vánja, “Johnny”), a diminutive of Ива́н (Iván), Іван (Ivan, “John”)
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Vanya?
#2,408 among girls’ names, 2025
Vanya rose from #4,292 in 2015 to #2,408 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 19.0 to 46.7 per million.
83 babies in 2020, the peak
Vanya peaked in 2020, when 83 girls were given it, #2,194 among girls’ names. The 75 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 75 | #2,408 | 46.7 |
| 2024 | 67 | #2,633 | 41.4 |
| 2023 | 59 | #2,888 | 36.8 |
| 2022 | 81 | #2,317 | 49.4 |
| 2021 | 80 | #2,307 | 48.8 |
| 2020 | 83 | #2,194 | 51.3 |
| 2019 | 72 | #2,480 | 42.9 |
| 2018 | 46 | #3,436 | 27.0 |
| 2017 | 49 | #3,299 | 28.4 |
| 2016 | 44 | #3,582 | 24.8 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 34 | #4,292 | 19.0 |
| 2014 | 28 | #5,017 | 15.7 |
| 2013 | 21 | #6,236 | 12.0 |
| 2012 | 38 | #4,041 | 21.6 |
| 2011 | 30 | #4,797 | 17.1 |
| 2010 | 29 | #4,965 | 16.3 |
| 2009 | 26 | #5,530 | 14.2 |
| 2008 | 17 | #7,724 | 9.0 |
| 2007 | 34 | #4,467 | 17.7 |
| 2006 | 32 | #4,563 | 16.8 |
| 2005 | 22 | #5,780 | 11.9 |
| 2004 | 26 | #5,053 | 14.2 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,972 | 7.7 |
| 2002 | 13 | #8,255 | 7.2 |
| 2001 | 16 | #6,942 | 8.9 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,553 | 7.7 |
| 1999 | 15 | #6,819 | 8.5 |
| 1998 | 8 | #11,092 | 4.5 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,780 | 2.9 |
| 1995 | 8 | #10,474 | 4.5 |
| 1993 | 6 | #13,382 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 8 | #10,436 | 4.3 |
| 1991 | 5 | #15,365 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,636 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 5 | #12,116 | 3.0 |
| 1979 | 6 | #10,171 | 3.7 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,530 | 4.6 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,874 | 5.9 |
| 1976 | 8 | #7,267 | 5.5 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,953 | 4.8 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,618 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,602 | 4.8 |
| 1969 | 13 | #4,187 | 7.7 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,977 | 3.7 |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,606 | 6.1 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,533 | 3.5 |
| 1965 | 13 | #3,728 | 7.4 |
| 1964 | 12 | #4,083 | 6.3 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,607 | 2.6 |
| 1962 | 8 | #5,275 | 4.1 |
| 1960 | 5 | #7,262 | 2.5 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,204 | 3.0 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,981 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,920 | 5.4 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,810 | 4.0 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,681 | 2.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Vanya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Vanya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Vanya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Vanya, and how old are they?
1,250 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,279 Americans ever recorded as Vanya. The median Vanya alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 1,260 people named Vanya (1,147 women and girls, 113 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 837 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 54 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 90 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 42 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 331 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 735 |
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 Vanya born?
The states with the most babies named Vanya are California, Texas and Washington, with 87% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Washington is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 15 | #1,569 | 1.5× |
| Texas | 11 | #2,028 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 7 | #909 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,340 | 0.4× |
Where Vanya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Vanya is most over-represented in California: since 1955 it was given 1.5 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 Vanya 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 7,964 babies since 1880, Vanya is the third most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 75 of their 280 babies (27%), 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 Vanya
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 Vanya and names like it
- Compare Vanya and VaniaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sVanya peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Vanya since 1910.
- Russian namesWiktionary’s origin for Vanya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Vanya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Vanya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with VMost given first.