Marya
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "bitter" or "beloved".
Name Census estimates that about 1,846 living Americans carry the first name Marya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marya today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marya births was 1971 (49 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marya. 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 Marya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 185,674 Americans
Peak year
1971
49 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,811
Tracked since 1909
Census
Marya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,037 people with the first name Marya, which placed it at #5,588 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
#5,588
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,037 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marya is White at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.3%) and Black (10.0%). 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 Marya 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 Marya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.8% · 1,634
- Hispanic or Latino25.3% · 767
- Black or African American10.0% · 303
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 195
- Two or more races4.1% · 123
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 15
Popularity
Marya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marya from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 388 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marya 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 Marya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maryas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Marya, while Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marya
Marya is a given name with roots tracing back to ancient civilizations. The name originates from the Hebrew language, derived from the root word "Miryam" or "Mariam". In Hebrew, the name carries the meanings of "beloved", "wished-for child", and "bitter" or "beloved lady".
The name gained widespread popularity during the spread of Christianity, as it is the name of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, in various languages. In the New Testament of the Bible, the name appears as "Maria" in Greek, and later evolved into "Mary" in English.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marya dates back to the 1st century AD, when it was used for a wealthy Roman woman named Marya Antonia. In the 4th century, Saint Marya of Alexandria was a renowned Christian martyr who was executed for her faith during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
Throughout history, the name Marya has been borne by several notable figures. In the 11th century, Marya of Alania was a Georgian queen consort and the wife of King Bagrat IV of Georgia. Marya Theresa of Spain (1638-1683) was a Spanish Infanta and the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain.
During the Renaissance period, Marya de' Medici (1573-1642) was an Italian noblewoman who became the Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV. Her life and political influence were significant during the reigns of her husband and her son, Louis XIII.
In the realm of literature, Marya Edgeworth (1768-1849) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and philanthropist, known for her novels depicting Anglo-Irish societal norms and manners. Marya Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), the author of the iconic novel "Frankenstein", was an English writer and a prominent figure in the Romantic literary movement.
In more recent times, Marya Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), a Polish physicist and chemist, made groundbreaking contributions to the study of radioactivity and became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice.
People
Marya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marya 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
Marya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,846 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marya 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 185,674 US residents.
Is Marya a common name?
We classify Marya as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,195 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marya most popular?
The single biggest year for Marya was 1971, when 49 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marya is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,037 people with the name Marya, or 1.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,588 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 Marya 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 Marya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marya appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,041 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Marya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marya is White at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.3%) and Black (10.0%). 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 Marya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.8% (1,634 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 Marya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marya 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 Marya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marya 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 Marya 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 called Marya?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.