Mariya
A feminine name of Aramaic origin meaning "sea of bitterness".
Name Census estimates that about 2,548 living Americans carry the first name Mariya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mariya today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mariya births was 2009 (142 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mariya. 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 Mariya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 134,519 Americans
Peak year
2009
142 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,965
Tracked since 1970
Census
Mariya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,886 people with the first name Mariya, which placed it at #2,896 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
#2,896
National first-name rank
People counted
7.9K
7,886 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mariya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariya is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Mariya 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 Mariya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.3% · 6,099
- Black or African American9.4% · 742
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 440
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 361
- Two or more races2.8% · 224
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 20
Popularity
Mariya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mariya from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 893 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
Mariya 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 Mariya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mariyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Mariya, while Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mariya
The name Mariya originates from the Hebrew name Miryam, which is believed to have derived from the ancient Egyptian word "mr" meaning "beloved" or "love". Miryam is also connected to the Hebrew root "mrr" meaning "bitterness" or "rebellion". This duality in meaning is reflective of the biblical character Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Mariya is a variant spelling of the name Maria, which is the Latin and Greek form of Miryam. The name Maria first appeared in the New Testament of the Bible, referring to the Virgin Mary. It quickly spread across Europe and became one of the most widely used names among Christians.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mariya is in the Old Church Slavonic language, which was used in the Byzantine Empire and later adopted by the Slavic peoples. The name Mariya was likely introduced to the Slavic regions through the influence of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Historically, there have been several notable figures with the name Mariya. One of the most famous is Maria Theresa (1717-1780), the Archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress. She is renowned for her reforms and her efforts to centralize the Habsburg Monarchy.
Another prominent Mariya is Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), the Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering work on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice.
In the realm of literature, Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and poet, known for her works that promoted the education of women and addressed social issues.
In the realm of religion, Maria Faustyna Kowalska (1905-1938) was a Polish nun and mystic, renowned for her visions and writings on the Divine Mercy devotion, which has become popular in the Catholic Church.
Lastly, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian educator and physician, best known for developing the Montessori method of education, which emphasizes child-centered learning and independence.
People
Mariya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mariya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mariya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mariya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,548 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mariya 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 134,519 US residents.
Is Mariya a common name?
We classify Mariya as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,599 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mariya most popular?
The single biggest year for Mariya was 2009, when 142 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mariya is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mariya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,886 people with the name Mariya, or 2.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,896 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 Mariya 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 Mariya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariya appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,885 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Mariya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariya is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Mariya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mariya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.3% (6,099 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 Mariya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mariya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mariya 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 Mariya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mariya 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 Mariya 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 common is the name Mariya?
See how many people share the name Mariya on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.