Kaya: Meaning of Baby Name Kaya

About the Name Kaya

Kaya is a lyrical, cross-cultural name whose soft two-syllable sound has given it appeal across several traditions; it is variously linked to Japanese and other roots, and is sometimes glossed with the gentle sense of "a resting place." Rather than tracing to one fixed ancient meaning, much of its charm lies in that very openness — an airy, vowel-rich name that feels both natural and serene, at home in many cultures and pleasing in almost any language.

The single recorded variant is Kaia, a closely related spelling that shares the same flowing rhythm. Both forms suit parents drawn to short, melodic girls' names that pair easily with a wide range of surnames and feel current without being trendy in an obvious way. There is a calm, grounded quality to Kaya that makes it feel timeless rather than tied to any single fashion.

Kaya first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for girls in 2000 and has appeared there over the years since, reaching its peak in 2003 at rank #540. It returned to the rankings at #966 in 2024, with 268 girls given the name, having also appeared at #973 in 2019. With 7,591 girls accumulated across its top-1000 run, Kaya is a quietly enduring choice with a gentle, international feel that has never gone out of style and never sounds dated in any decade or setting.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Kaya

167

Japanese baby names in our dictionary

88

Japanese female names

99

4-letter K-names in our dictionary

598

K-female names total

2000–2024

years of US SSA records (20 total)

7,591

total US births named Kaya (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2024)

➖ Steady: Kaya edged up 7 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#973 in 2019 → #966 in 2024).

Annual US births named Kaya by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2004 with 528 girls named Kaya (girl rank #541 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2024, ranked #966 for girls (268 US births). That's 425 places below its 2004 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Kaya Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kaya the strongest states are Hawaii, Oregon, Illinois.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Hawaii	#200	29
2	Oregon	#676	16
3	Illinois	#704	143
4	Utah	#704	22
5	Arizona	#724	38
6	California	#726	420
7	Massachusetts	#739	49
8	New Jersey	#743	51
9	Washington	#752	81
10	Colorado	#786	55

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Michigan	#945	24
2	Indiana	#945	19
3	New York	#929	87
4	Pennsylvania	#919	52
5	Maryland	#895	17
6	Missouri	#876	24
7	Virginia	#863	64
8	Minnesota	#825	18
9	Colorado	#786	55
10	Washington	#752	81

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kaya in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Kaia	From The Earth	Female	Greek

Looking for names like Kaya?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

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Compare Kaya to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kaya against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Kaya vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Kaya vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Kaya vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Kaya vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Kaya vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Kaya vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Kaya vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Kaya vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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