girl's name
Mya
MY-ah
- Origin French
- Gender Girl
- Letters 3
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 99,904
the United States
#443
2025 births
Mya is a girl's name, usually a respelling of Maya or Mia, and the sources disagree completely about what it means. It ranks sixty-eighth in France and is falling in the English-speaking markets after peaking in 2009.
- Mya is a name of French origin.
- Peaked in 2009, when 3,415 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,757 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1954.
Mya over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1950s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 10 |
| 1960s | 100 |
| 1970s | 377 |
| 1980s | 546 |
| 1990s | 4,166 |
| 2000s | 28,840 |
| 2010s | 22,395 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,929 |
What Mya means
Mya has no settled meaning. Read as Maya it may be Sanskrit for illusion, Hebrew for water, or Greek for mother; read as Mia it descends from Maria. Reference works pick among these rather than agreeing.
Where Mya comes from
Mya is a modern respelling whose parent name is itself contested. Maya is Sanskrit for illusion and a central concept in Hindu philosophy; it is also the name of the Buddha's mother, a Hebrew word for water, the Greek Maia who was mother of Hermes and gave her name to May, and a Mesoamerican civilization. Mia, separately, is a Scandinavian and Italian short form of Maria. Because Mya sits between the two, reference sites variously give it as Sanskrit, Greek, Hebrew and Burmese — the last from the Myanmar word for emerald. None can be called correct: this is a spelling in search of an etymology rather than a name with one.
Mya in use
Mya ranks sixty-eighth in France with about 680 births in 2025 but is falling in the English-speaking markets, where our records show a peak in 2009 at more than three thousand American births in that year alone. It holds up better in Northern Ireland at 114 and Scotland at 185 than in France's neighbors. Our data carries it from 1954.
How popular is Mya?
In 2025, Mya was given to 697 babies in the United States, ranking #443 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Mya is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Mya is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mÿa | Mÿa is a variant spelling of Mya, recorded in France. | 30 |
| Myä | Myä is a rare spelling of Mya, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 15 times, mostly in France. | 15 |
Names that peaked alongside Mya
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Mya also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Mya over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Mya 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 Mya
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Mya — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Mya
What does the name Mya mean?
There is no settled answer. Read as Maya it may mean illusion, water or mother; read as Mia it descends from Maria.
Why do sources disagree about Mya?
It is a respelling whose parent name is itself contested, so each site picks a different origin for Maya or Mia.
Is Mya the same as Maya?
Usually treated as a respelling of it, though registers count them separately.
Is Mya still popular?
It ranks 68th in France but is falling in English-speaking markets since its 2009 peak.
Is Mya a girl's or a boy's name?
Mya is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Mya a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Mya currently ranks #68 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.