Mya is a streamlined spelling of Maya, a name with several roots: in Sanskrit maya means "illusion", in Greek myth Maia, the mother of Hermes, carries the sense of "mother", and in Hebrew it is linked to mayim, "water". The R&B singer Mya, who had her first hits in 1998, put this spelling on the map. Mya entered the US top 100 in 2005 and peaked at number 97 in 2009; it has declined every year since and stands at number 444 in 2025.