girl's name
Croía
KREE-a
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 100 (Ireland)
- Births on record 1,271
Ireland
#9
2025 births
Croía is a girl's name of Irish origin taken from croí, the Irish word for heart. It is one of the newest names in our records, appearing only from 2019, and it is far more used in Northern Ireland than anywhere else.
- Croía is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in Ireland in 2025, when 219 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in Ireland.
- Today about 1 in 213 babies in Ireland is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 2010.
Croía over time
Births per decade in Ireland, 2010s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 2010s | 92 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 901 |
What Croía means
Croía means heart. It is formed from croí, the Irish for a heart, and is used with the affectionate sense the word carries in Irish speech — a mo chroí, my heart, is an ordinary endearment.
Where Croía comes from
Croia is a modern coinage from the Irish croí, heart, and it has almost no history before this century — Northern Irish records show only isolated single registrations from the late 1990s onward. Because there is no tradition behind it, reference sites differ on how to spell and gloss it: Croía, Croia and Cróia all appear, and some sources reach for a form of Cróchnait or for the Albanian place name Croia, neither of which stands up. The plain derivation from croí is the one Irish speakers recognize. The name belongs to the same recent movement as Fiadh and Eala, in which parents draw on ordinary Irish vocabulary rather than on saints or sagas.
Croía in use
The two spellings of this name have split cleanly by jurisdiction, and the division is stark. This unaccented Croia is the Northern Irish form: it ranked 26th in Northern Ireland in 2024, against 1,262 in England and Wales and 12,898 in the United States. In the Republic it is the accented Croía that carries the name, at ninth in 2025, while the unaccented Croia recorded just three births. Very few names in our data divide this sharply between two neighboring jurisdictions on spelling alone.
How popular is Croía?
In 2025, Croía was given to 211 babies in Ireland, ranking #9 that year. It is one of the most popular names in Ireland.
Where Croía is used
Irish figures withhold any name given to fewer than three babies in a year, so a gap means the name fell below that floor rather than went unused. The Central Statistics Office began recording the síneadh fada in 2018, so accented and unaccented spellings are counted separately from that year on. Data & sources.
How Croía is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Croia | Croia is a spelling of Croía, used in Northern Ireland, where it ranks #26. | 339 |
| Croìa | Croìa is a rare spelling of Croía, written with a grave accent and recorded 5 times, mostly in Ireland. | 5 |
Names that peaked alongside Croía
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Croía also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Croía over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Croía in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Croía
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Croía — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Croía
What does the name Croia mean?
Croia means "heart," from the Irish croí.
How do you pronounce Croia?
KREE-a, two syllables.
Why do sources disagree about Croia?
It is a very recent coinage with no documented history, so reference sites differ on spelling and reach for unrelated derivations.
Where is Croia most popular?
Northern Ireland by a wide margin — 26th there in 2024, against three births in Ireland.
Is Croía a girl's or a boy's name?
Croía is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Croía a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Croía currently ranks #9 in Ireland. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.