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Aya

Japanese, Hebrew, Danish, Arabic
"colorful, design; honey buzzard, bird; rock, lull, happiness; sign, verse"
Madison Dresler
By Madison Dresler
Updated Tue Sep 30 2025

Aya Origin and Meaning

The name Aya is a girl's name of Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese origin meaning "colorful, design; honey buzzard, bird; rock, lull, happiness; sign, verse".

Aya, barely more than a breath, is an international favorite, with origins in several languages and cultures. Popular throughout Europe, it ranks in the US Top 1000 and was chosen for nearly 470 babies in a recent year.

As with many multicultural names, it has a variety of meanings. In Japanese, it is a colorful name, also associated with intricate design (pronounced A-YA). From its Hebrew origins, it can be considered a nature and bird name, related to the honey buzzard or to birds and flying more generally (pronounced a-YA).

Aya is also a Danish name (a respelling of Aja or Aija) possibly meaning "rock, lull" from Latvian Aija or "happiness" from Finnish Eija, and is a highly popular choice there. In this case, it would be said as IE-yah. In Arabic meanwhile, Aya means "sign, evidence" or "verse" and is a popular name in the Muslim community, also spelled as Ayah and said A-ya.

That only scratches the surface, however, because Aya also appears in Semitic mythology, where it means "dawn"; as a Kazakh name meaning "hideout, shelter" (said ah-YAH); in the Cherokee language meaning "I, me"; and as an alternative form of the Basque place name, Aya.

Thought we were done? No, because Aya may also be linked to the Turkic element ay meaning "moon", and therefore to Turkish-Altaic mythology in which the angelic Ayas symbolized creativity, abundance, and goodness. IE-a would be the pronunciation here.

In Mongolian, it means "melody", while in in Baoulé on the Ivory Coast, it is given to girls born on Fridays.

An Ancient Egyptian Queen, a Belgian Catholic Saint, and an Akkadian goddess, Aya has a lot of history and meaning hidden behind those three letters. More contemporary associations include Aya Korem, an Israeli singer-songwriter, and Aya Liu, a Taiwanese actress. And actress Hilary Swank named her daughter Aya (twin to brother Ohm) in 2024.

# 630 in the US

Aya Rank in US Top 1000

# 545 on Nameberry

Aya Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Popularity of the name Aya

20 Names Similar to Aya

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Aya.

Famous People Named Aya

  • Aya Hirano
    Japanese pop singer
  • Aya Matsuura
    Japanese pop singer
  • Aya Ishiguro
    Japanese pop singer and former member of Morning Musume
  • Aya Jones
    French,Jamaican model
  • Aya Cash
    American actress
  • Aya Liu
    Taiwanese actress
  • Aya Ueto
    Japanese actress
  • Aya Korem
    Israeli pop/rock singer
  • Aya Kanai
    fashion director of "Cosmopolitan" and "Seventeen" magazines.
  • Aya Thorgren
    Swedish fashion model

The name Aya in Pop Culture

  • Aya Al
    Rashid, character on TV's "The Originals"
  • Aya Fuse
    character in "Extras" by Scott Westerfeld
  • Aya Brea
    character in the video game series "Parasite Eve"
  • Aya Drevis
    main character in video game "Mad Father"
  • Aya Mikage
    main character in manga "Ceres, Celestial Legend"
  • Aya
    also Japanese for "fragile, delicate"
  • Aya
    any verse in the Qur'an
  • Aya
    character in video game "Assassin's Creed: Origins"