Maia: Meaning of Baby Name Maia

About the Name Maia

Maia descends from the Greek Maia (Μαῖα) meaning "midwife" or "mother" — referring originally to a Greek mythological nymph. The name has multiple classical anchors: Maia, the eldest of the seven Pleiades sisters of Greek mythology and the mother of Hermes by Zeus; and the Roman goddess Maia, the goddess of growth and spring (after whom the month of May is named).

Notable bearers include American writer Maia Angelou (using the more popular Maya spelling, see separate entry on Maya, born 1928, the iconic African-American writer of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 1969); contemporary American writer Maia Mitchell; and the iconic Marvel Comics character Maia of the Avengers franchise.

Maia's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2005 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. The name has been driven primarily by the broader American taste for short, vowel-rich, multi-cultural girls' names alongside Mia, Aria, and Maya. The various spellings (Maia, Maya, Mya, Maja) are tracked separately by SSA. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Greek-Roman-mythological pedigree, the in-built distinctive midwife/mother etymological register, and the compact two-syllable structure with vowel-rich rhythm. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-mythological and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Mai, Mia (the related shorter form, a popular standalone name on its own), and the rare Aya each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Maia, Maya (the more popular American form), Mya, and Maja have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Maia (essentially identical across Greek/Italian/Spanish), Maja (Slavic), and the original Greek Maia.

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

Quick Facts About Maia

1,029

Greek baby names in our dictionary

545

Greek female names

93

4-letter M-names in our dictionary

777

M-female names total

2000–2025

years of US SSA records (26 total)

14,337

total US births named Maia (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Maia climbed 65 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#498 in 2020 → #433 in 2025).

Annual US births named Maia by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2022 with 752 girls named Maia (girl rank #420 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #433 for girls (715 US births). That's 13 places below its 2022 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 Maia 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 Maia the strongest states are Hawaii, District of Columbia, Rhode Island.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Hawaii	#130	65
2	District of Columbia	#179	28
3	Rhode Island	#194	23
4	Florida	#273	626
5	Massachusetts	#295	182
6	New York	#301	546
7	California	#348	950
8	New Jersey	#353	222
9	Nevada	#360	67
10	New Mexico	#383	15

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Louisiana	#804	19
2	Georgia	#792	105
3	Ohio	#765	104
4	Wisconsin	#732	60
5	South Carolina	#722	44
6	Alabama	#710	29
7	Missouri	#708	42
8	Indiana	#707	57
9	Michigan	#694	103
10	Tennessee	#686	55

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

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
May	Old Arabic Name; Meaning Unknown	Female	Arabic
Maya	Abbreviation Of Amalia: Variant Of Maia.	Female	Spanish
Moya	Exceptional	Female	Celtic
Mya	Emerald	Female	English

Looking for names like Maia?

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Compare Maia to Other Popular Names

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

Maia vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Maia vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Maia vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Maia vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Maia vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Maia vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Maia vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Maia vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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