Kaiya is a modern name usually explained as a respelling of Kaia, the Scandinavian short form of Katherine that is read as "pure"; some families also connect it with Japanese or Hawaiian sounds. Its airy, open vowels put it in the same group as Maya and Kiara. In the United States Kaiya entered the top 1000 in 2001, peaked at number 651 in 2002 and has stayed between number 800 and 1000 for the past decade; it ranks number 994 in 2025.