Haja
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "pilgrimage" or "journey".
Name Census estimates that about 205 living Americans carry the first name Haja. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Haja today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Haja births was 2004 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Haja. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Haja with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
205
~ 1 in 1,671,972 Americans
Peak year
2004
13 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,095
Tracked since 1989
Census
Haja in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 574 people with the first name Haja, which placed it at #18,700 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#18,700
National first-name rank
People counted
574
574 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
90.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Haja
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Haja is Black at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Haja described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Haja at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American90.4% · 519
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 28
- Two or more races2.3% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 8
- White0.9% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Haja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Haja from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 86 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Haja by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Haja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hajas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Haja
The name Haja is believed to have originated from the Arabic language, with roots dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Arabic word "hajj," which refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam. The name itself signifies a person who has completed this sacred journey.
In Islamic tradition, the name Haja carries a deep spiritual connotation, as it is associated with the fulfillment of a religious obligation and a testament to one's devotion to their faith. It is often given to children as a way to honor this important aspect of Islamic culture and to instill in them a sense of reverence for their religious heritage.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Haja can be found in historical texts and records from the Arabian Peninsula, dating back to the 7th century CE. During this time, the name was primarily used by Arab Muslims who had undertaken the Hajj pilgrimage and returned with a sense of spiritual enlightenment.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing the name Haja was Haja bint Yusuf (born around 1050 CE), a renowned poet and scholar from Seville, Spain. Her literary works, which include poems and treatises on various subjects, are considered important contributions to the Golden Age of Islamic culture in Andalusia.
Another prominent individual with the name Haja was Haja ibn al-Khayyat (born around 900 CE), a respected Islamic scholar and jurist from Baghdad, Iraq. He was known for his expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and his contributions to the development of Islamic legal thought during the Abbasid Caliphate.
In the 13th century, Haja al-Hariri (born around 1210 CE) was a celebrated poet and writer from Basra, Iraq. His most famous work, "Maqamat al-Hariri," a collection of rhymed prose and poetry, is considered a masterpiece of Arabic literature and has been widely studied and appreciated throughout the centuries.
Moving forward to the 15th century, Haja Khatun (born around 1420 CE) was a powerful and influential female ruler in the Timurid Empire, which spanned parts of modern-day Central Asia and Iran. She played a significant role in the political and cultural affairs of the empire and was known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
In more recent history, Haja Assia Djebar (1936-2015) was a celebrated Algerian novelist, translator, and filmmaker. Her literary works, which often explored themes of identity, gender, and the colonial experience in Algeria, earned her numerous accolades, including the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1996.
People
Haja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Haja as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Haja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Haja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 205 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Haja going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,671,972 US residents.
Is Haja a common name?
We classify Haja as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 208 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Haja most popular?
The single biggest year for Haja was 2004, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Haja is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Haja in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 574 people with the name Haja, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,700 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Haja in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Haja?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Haja leans strongly female. 551 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 26 male bearers (4.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Haja?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Haja is Black at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.9%) and Two or More Races (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Haja most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Haja in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.4% (519 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Haja in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Haja a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Haja in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Haja still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Haja in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Haja can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Haja?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.