Is Maya in the Bible? No, the Name Has Greek, Sanskrit and Hebrew Roots

No one named Maya appears in the Bible. The name has three separate origins. The English Maya is a form of Maia, from a Greek word meaning “good mother”; the Hindu and Buddhist Maya is Sanskrit for “illusion”; and the Hebrew Maya comes from mayim, “water.”

Is Maya in the Bible?

No man or woman in the Old or New Testament is named Maya, and no translation uses the name. The closest the Bible comes is the Hebrew word mayim, “water,” which appears in its second verse: “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Behind the Name derives the Hebrew given name Maya from that word, but nobody in Scripture bears it.

One related spelling does lead back to the Bible. In Germany, Scandinavia and much of eastern Europe, Maja is also used as a short form of Maria, the Latin and Greek form of Mary, the mother of Jesus. A girl called Maja in those countries may therefore be named after Mary, even though Maya itself is not a biblical name.

What does Maya mean?

The English Maya is a variant of Maia, from the Greek maia, “good mother” or “foster mother,” perhaps first a nursery word related to mētēr, “mother.” In Greek myth Maia was the eldest of the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and the mother of the god Hermes by Zeus. The Romans identified her with their own goddess Maia, the mother of Mercury. Some parents also give the name in reference to the Maya, the Indigenous people of southern Mexico and parts of Central America.

In Sanskrit māyā means “illusion” or “magic.” In Hindu thought the word describes the illusory nature of reality, and in Buddhist tradition Maya is the name of the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

In Israel, Maya is a Hebrew name taken from mayim, “water,” and it is one of the most popular names for girls: it ranked fifth in 2024. In the United States it first entered the list of the 1,000 most common names for girls in 1970, has been in the top 100 every year since 2002, and reached its highest rank, 49th, in 2023.

Is Maya a Christian name?

Maya is not a biblical name, and it is not a saint’s name in the Russian Orthodox calendar. Russian Orthodox children are baptized with the name of a saint. In 2024 a mother asked the Orthodox magazine Foma which name her daughter Maya should be baptized with. Archpriest Andrei Efanov advised the name of a saint the family honors and prays to, ideally one that sounds close to the child’s own name, and said that the choice belongs to the parents alone.

A famous Christian bearer of the name was the American poet Maya Angelou (1928–2014). She was born Marguerite Johnson; Maya came from her brother Bailey’s name for her, “My” or “Mya Sister.” She was a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for 30 years.

Related reading

• Is Maria a biblical name? Yes, it is how the Greek writes Mary
• What does water symbolize in the Bible?
• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names