Vanya

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 19 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◐

Vanya is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Bulgarian given name9.6K records spelled Vanya54 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, English

  Also written Vanja, Ваня, Vania, Вања, Vani︠a︡

• Spanish given name6.3K records spelled Vanya9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Mexico, Spain, Brazil, France

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French

  Also written Vânya, Vânýa, Vãnya, Ványa

• Hindi given name6.0K records spelled Vanya3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Russia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

• Indonesian given name1.5K records spelled Vanya2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, India, United States, Russia

  Also written 'Vanya

• Russian given name1.5K records spelled Vanya36 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek

  Also written Ваня, Vanja, Vania, Ваниа, Ванья

• a separate given name572 records spelled Vanya2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom

  Also written Ványa

54 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●

Vanya is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A transliteration of the pet form of the Russian male given name from Russian or Ukrainian Ива́н (Iván), Іван (Ivan).

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

• Siva (N)

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

• Russian: pet form of IVAN .

  as a word

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) — 56 years between 1955–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Vanya Voynovab. 1934BGbasketball player (1934.–1993.)
• Vanya Petkovab. 1944BGBulgarian poet
• Vanja Bulićb. 1947RSnot in their usual nameSerbian writer and journalist
• Vanja Cernjulb. 1968HRnot in their usual nameCroatian cinematographer
• Vania Millánb. 1978ESnot in their usual nameSpanish model
• Vanja Udovičićb. 1982RSnot in their usual nameSerbian politician and water polo player
• Litzyb. 1982MXnot in their usual nameMexican actress and singer
• Vanja Milinković-Savićb. 1997RSnot in their usual nameSerbian footballer (born 1997)
• Vanja Marinkovićb. 1997RSnot in their usual nameSerbian basketball player (born 1997)
• Vanja Drkušićb. 1999SInot in their usual nameSlovenian association football player

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 · 341 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Vanya?

We estimate roughly 1.7 thousand people bear Vanya (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Vanya have the most bearers?

We estimate about 1.1 thousand people bear Vanya in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled vanya.

Where is Vanya most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Vanya is densest in Iceland — about 1 in 88 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

Is Vanya a male or female name?

Vanya is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Vanya mean?

Recorded meaning: feminine form of Vanja; Russian diminutive of Ivan, form of John