Marja

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Marya in BR Brazil, US United States, MX Mexico and 16 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 25 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Marja is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name9.6K records spelled Marja7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Finland, Spain, Netherlands

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French

  Also written Márja, Mârjâ, Márjá

• a separate given name910 records spelled Marja2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Finland, Netherlands, India

  Also written Márjá

• Hungarian given name516 records spelled Marja2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Slovenia, Finland, Netherlands, Hungary

  Also written Márjá

• Latvian given name76 records spelled Marja3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Latvia, Finland, Netherlands, United States

  Languages: Latvian, Lithuanian

  Also written Mārja

• a separate given name75 records spelled Marja3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Netherlands, United States, Finland

  Also written Márjá, Márja

44 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Marja is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Marja är en finsk form av → Maria. Namnet förekommer i finsk folkdiktning och är också identiskt med finskans marja ’bär’, varför det har uppfattats som ett genuint finskt namn. Marja ingår som första led i många sammansatta kvinnonamn, t.ex. Marja-Leena och Marja-Liisa. Namnet är också en svensk och norsk dialektal form av → Maria.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Visnu (P)

  as a name·Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names

• In German, weibl. Vom., friesische, finnische, slowenische

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Hungarian, third-person singular indicative present definite of mar

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Norwegian Bokmål, definite feminine singular of marje

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 45 years between 1921–1999. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Maikki Länsiöb. 1932FInot in their usual nameFinnish actress
• Kaija Mustonenb. 1941FInot in their usual nameFinnish speed skater
• Marja Kokb. 1944NLDutch actress (born 1944)
• Kristiina Halkolab. 1945FInot in their usual nameFinnish actress, singer and politician
• Liisa Hyssäläb. 1948FInot in their usual nameFinnish dentist and politician
• Marja Packalénb. 1948FIFinnish actress
• Marja-Sisko Aaltob. 1954FIFinnish Lutheran minister
• Soile Isokoskib. 1957FInot in their usual nameFinnish soprano
• Eva-Maria Zschornackb. 1959DEnot in their usual nameSorbian author, interpreter and journalist
• Marja Helanderb. 1965FIFinnish-Sámi photographer (born 1965)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 183 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Marja?

We estimate roughly 61 thousand people bear Marja (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Marja have the most bearers?

We estimate about 42 thousand people bear Marja in Finland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled marja.

Where is Marja most common?

Marja is densest in Finland, where the national register counts about 1 in 134 people carrying it.

How common is Marja compared with other names?

In Finland, Marja is the 51st most common given name of 51,554 given names recorded there.

Is Marja a male or female name?

Marja is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Marja mean?

Recorded meaning: berry (small succulent fruit)