Kamaya
A feminine name of African origin meaning "the light shines".
Name Census estimates that about 1,829 living Americans carry the first name Kamaya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamaya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamaya births was 2008 (110 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamaya. 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 Kamaya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kamaya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 187,400 Americans
Peak year
2008
110 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,700
Tracked since 1987
Census
Kamaya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,333 people with the first name Kamaya, which placed it at #10,122 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
#10,122
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,333 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamaya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamaya is Black at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.2%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 Kamaya 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 Kamaya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.2% · 1,042
- Two or more races10.2% · 136
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 68
- White4.8% · 64
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 10
Popularity
Kamaya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamaya from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 702 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamaya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamaya 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 Kamaya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Georgia, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Kamaya, while Washington, Kentucky, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamaya
The name Kamaya is believed to have its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language that originated in South Asia. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "kama," which means desire or love, and "ya," which is a suffix denoting a feminine name. Consequently, the name Kamaya can be interpreted as "she who is desired" or "the desirable one."
While the exact time period when the name first emerged is uncertain, it is thought to have been in use during the Vedic period, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 600 BCE. This era was marked by the composition of the Vedas, which are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism and are considered the foundation of Indian philosophy and culture.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Kamaya can be found in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic poem that is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. In the Mahabharata, Kamaya is mentioned as the name of a beautiful and desirable woman.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kamaya. One of the earliest recorded figures was Kamaya, a Sanskrit poet and scholar who lived in the 7th century CE during the reign of the Pallava dynasty in South India. She was renowned for her poetic works and her contributions to the field of literature.
Another prominent figure was Kamaya Devi, a Indian princess who lived in the 14th century CE during the Delhi Sultanate period. She was known for her beauty, intelligence, and patronage of the arts and literature.
In the 16th century, Kamaya Bhatt was a celebrated Indian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and astronomy. She is particularly known for her work on the calculation of planetary positions and the development of mathematical techniques.
Kamaya Devi Chaudhry was an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She played an active role in the Indian independence movement and worked tirelessly to promote women's education and empowerment.
More recently, Kamaya Jayanti was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived from 1917 to 2010. She was a pioneering figure in the revival and promotion of the Odissi dance form and was awarded numerous honors and accolades for her contributions to the field of dance.
People
Kamaya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamaya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kamaya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamaya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,829 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamaya 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 187,400 US residents.
Is Kamaya a common name?
We classify Kamaya as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,849 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamaya most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamaya was 2008, when 110 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamaya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamaya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,333 people with the name Kamaya, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,122 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 Kamaya 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 Kamaya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamaya appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,331 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kamaya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamaya is Black at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.2%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 Kamaya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamaya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.2% (1,042 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 Kamaya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamaya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamaya 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 Kamaya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamaya 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 Kamaya 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 are named Kamaya?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.