Name Maya Origin, meaning, pronunciation & popularity of the name Maya

Maya is a ♀ girl’s name.

What is the origin of the name Maya?

The name Maya derived from the Hindu goddess Māyā, the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Maya is also of Hebrew and old Japanese origin. Besides, Maya is considered a diminutive of the biblical name Maria.

What does the name Maya mean?

Maya means “illusion” or “deceit” in Indian (from Sanskrit “māyā/माया”) and “water” (from Hebrew “máyim/מַיִם”). In Old Japanese, Maya means “golden curl”. Besides, Maya means “sea of bitterness”, “drop of the sea”, “star of the sea”, “rebelliousness”, “exalted one”, “beloved” and “wished for child” (from Maria).

Variants of Maya

Maya is a beautiful name with origins in many different languages. It is a very international name, suitable for various last names. In addition to the spellings Maya and Maja, there are also the variants Maia, Maía and Maïa. The name Maya can stand alone or be given with a suitable middle name. Good possibilities for this are: Maya Lynn, Maya Karen, Maya Paige, Maya Chloe, Maya Ava or Maya Stella.

Celebrity women with the name Maya

• American comedian and actress Maya Khabira Rudolph was born in 1972 in Florida. She gained her fame as part of the ensemble of the NBC show “Saturday Night Live”. Maya Rudolph has since been seen in many Hollywood comedies, including films such as “Bridal Alarm” (2011) and supporting roles in sitcoms such as “Brooklyn 99” (2016) and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (2017). She is also active as a voice actress and her work has won several awards.
• Maya Indea Jama is a British television and radio presenter and also a DJ. She was born in 1994 in Bristol and moved to London later on to start her career path. Maya Jama was a host in many TV shows and had her own radio show and a podcast called “When life gives you melons”, where only female guests where invited to talk about life, relationships and career.
• A famous daughter is Maya Thurman Hawke (born 1998), the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. Maya follows in the footsteps of her famous parents and is herself active as a model and actress. She was awarded for her role as Robin Buckley in the Netflix horror sci-fi series “Stranger Things” (since 2019).
• Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014) was an African American writer and civil rights activist. She was an important part of the political movement for the improvement of the civil rights of black people in the United States. Maya Angelou had an eventful life and worked as a singer and dancer in her younger years. Later, she began a career in journalism and lived for periods in Egypt and Ghana. Maya Angelou was a friend of the well-known black civil rights activist Malcom X and supported the election campaign of the first African-American president of the USA, Barack Obama. She has also been a professor at many universities and has written a number of autobiographies about her life.

The indigenous Maya

• The Mayan people is an indigenous people in Mexico. Their settlement area spanned the land between the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. The Mayan people created imposing structures, which to this day are among the main tourist attractions in Mexico. The Maya have a long culture of astronomy and developed their own calendar.

Pronunciation of Maya

Variants of the name Maya

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