Gaja
From the Greek word for "earth". A young name in Poland: nearly all of the roughly 5,600 women who carry it were born this century, and meeting one is still memorable.
Gaja Pronunciation
Gaja is pronounced GAH-yah (/ˈgaja/).
What Gaja means
Where Gaja comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gaja comes from the Greek Gaia, a word for the earth itself. In Greek myth Gaia was the ground from which the first gods rose, mother of the sky and the sea. The Polish form keeps the root and the meaning: ziemia. Earth, and nothing more elaborate than that.
The oldest written trace runs deep. Hesiod, composing his Theogony around 700 BC, set Gaia near the beginning of everything, just after Chaos. The name reached Polish registers much later, and it stays rare, which gives a girl called Gaja some room to be herself.
On a class register the name is short enough to read in one glance, sitting between a Gabriela and a Hanna without asking for extra breath. What it means stays constant from the myth to the modern form. Gaja means earth, ziemia, the Greek Gaia underneath.
When Gaja celebrates name day
Gaja appears 5 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 27 September.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Gaja
1 in 4039 women in Poland is named Gaja. 5,582 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #469 among female names.
Gaja's popularity over time
477 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #112 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where parents choose Gaja
Gaja is most popular in West Pomeranian, 32% above the national average (209 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+23%) and Lower Silesian (+19%). It is least common in Podlaskie and Holy Cross, 39% and 35% below average respectively.
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West Pomeranian
+32%1 in 404 babies
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Greater Poland
+23%1 in 436 babies
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Lower Silesian
+19%1 in 450 babies
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Podlaskie
−39%1 in 877 babies
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Holy Cross
−35%1 in 827 babies
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Lublin
−32%1 in 790 babies
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West Pomeranian+32% 209 born1 in 404 babies+32%
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Greater Poland+23% 494 born1 in 436 babies+23%
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Lower Silesian+19% 349 born1 in 450 babies+19%
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Pomeranian+16% 321 born1 in 459 babies+16%
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Silesian+5% 446 born1 in 510 babies+5%
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Masovian+2% 676 born1 in 524 babies+2%
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Lubusz−3% 90 born1 in 552 babies−3%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−5% 194 born1 in 564 babies−5%
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Subcarpathian−6% 212 born1 in 569 babies−6%
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Łódź−6% 223 born1 in 568 babies−6%
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Opole−8% 79 born1 in 583 babies−8%
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Lesser Poland−12% 372 born1 in 610 babies−12%
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Warmian-Masurian−19% 109 born1 in 659 babies−19%
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Lublin−32% 130 born1 in 790 babies−32%
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Holy Cross−35% 67 born1 in 827 babies−35%
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Podlaskie−39% 75 born1 in 877 babies−39%
Gaja as a middle name
Gaja is a first name for 5,582 women in Poland and a middle name for another 975, an 85/15 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 250th, between Lea (988) and Viktoria (964).
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#248 Ksenia1,001
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#249 Lea988
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#250 Gaja975
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#251 Viktoria964
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#252 Sophia960