Given name
Vanja
“John”·“Jane”
Vanja is a feminine given name from Russian. It is used in Swedish, Norwegian, and Serbo-Croatian.
Original RussianВаня
Meaning & origin
What it means
Vanja is built from elements meaning “John” and “Jane”.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Russian.
How it developed
In Norwegian usage, Vanja is a diminutive of Иван. In Norwegian usage, Vanja developed from Ваня.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2003. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Vanja through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5
- 0 boys · 5 girls
- Most popular year
- 2003
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 5 in 2003. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 464 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Vanja’s family of names
In Norwegian usage, Vanja is a diminutive of Иван. In Norwegian usage, Vanja developed from the Russian form Ваня. In German usage, Vanja has a related form in Johannes.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Vanja has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Russian roots to each of them.
Russianwhere Vanja comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Vanja
- Vanja Milinković-SavićSerbian footballer (born 1997)
- Vanja UdovičićSerbian politician and water polo playerborn 1982
- Vanja MarinkovićSerbian basketball player (born 1997)
- Vanja DrkušićSlovenian association football playerborn 1999
- Vanja Gesheva-TsvetkovaBulgarian sprint canoerborn 1960
- Vanja BlombergSwedish artistic gymnastborn 1929
- Vanya DermendzhievaOlympic medalist in basketballborn 1958
- Vanya Voynovabasketball player (1934.–1993.)
- Vanja IlićSerbian handball playerborn 1993
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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