Given name & surname

Yama

“from the mountain”

Yama is used as a given name and a surname. One Japanese interpretation is “from the mountain.”

Original Japanese矢間

Meaning & origin

What it means

One Japanese interpretation is “from the mountain.”

Where it comes from

An origin associated with this spelling is Japanese.

How it developed

From Japanese やま (Yama).

Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1989. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Yama through the years

Babies since 1880
85
85 boys · 0 girls
Most popular year
2025
12 babies
2025
12
#7,169 for boys
2021–25 vs 2016–20
—
Too few births to compare
0246820002025Highest share 20257.0
Yama in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1989–2025, per million boys born. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

In 2025, this name appeared in 12 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 7,169 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 432 as a first name in 2020; 318 as a surname in 2020.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Yama’s family of names

Yama has a related form in Yamah. Yama has a related form in Yamma. Yama has a related form in Yammah.

Walk Yama’s family in the name graph

Yama山矢間YamahYammaYammah

Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Nicknames & forms 3

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Spellings & scripts 2

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

People named Yama

Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.

Similar names

If you love Yama, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Japanese · Modern

Ohtani

Ohtani is a surname from Japanese. It is used in English and Tagalog.

15Very rare

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Asai

Asai is a surname from Japanese.

36RareRising fast

96% boys · 4% girls

Japanese · Modern

Asahi

Asahi is a masculine given name from Japanese. It is used in French.

18Very rareRising

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Takai

Takai is a surname from Japanese. It is used in English and Portuguese.

29RareRising fast

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Ryuji

“the dragon man”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Shoma

Shoma is a masculine given name from Japanese.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Gohan

“cooked rice”

30RareRising

>99% boys

Japanese · Modern

Shohei

Shohei is a masculine given name from Japanese. It is used in English, Portuguese, and Tagalog.

15Very rareRising fast

>99% boys

Sibling ideas

Names that share Yama’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Yama

A sister for Yama