How to say it
AR · ya
/ˈɑr.i.ə/
Feminine
Arya
Noble
What it means
Sanskrit and Old Persian ārya, 'noble' or 'honorable.' The historical name for the Indo-Iranian peoples who self-identified with this root. Game of Thrones's Arya Stark (Maisie Williams, 2011-2019) is the dominant modern English-language anchor.
Arya comes from the Sanskrit and Old Persian ārya, meaning 'noble' or 'honorable.' It was the self-designation of the Indo-Iranian peoples who migrated across South and Central Asia in antiquity; the modern country name Iran descends from the same root (Aryānām, 'of the Aryans'). The name remained in regular use as a personal name across India and Iran. George R.R. Martin chose Arya Stark for his protagonist in A Song of Ice and Fire (1996); Maisie Williams's portrayal in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011-2019) brought the name into mainstream English-speaking use. It entered the US top 200 in 2018. The Aryan-supremacy distortion of the root is a 19th-and-20th-century European misappropriation; the underlying word is not connected to that ideology in its original languages. No common nickname.
Popularity over time
peaked at #92 in 2019, currently #158 in 2025.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, names given to at least 5 babies in a year, 1880–present. See where the names are moving
Heads-up notes
- Pop culture
Arya Stark (Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams 2011-2019) is the dominant English-language anchor; the name carries no Aryan-supremacy baggage in Sanskrit or Persian.
- Spelling
Aria (Italian, 'air, melody') is a separate name with a different root; the two converge in modern English use.
Who's worn it
Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.
- Arya Stark Maisie Williams's character in Game of Thrones, 2011-2019
Spelling variants
- Aria
- Aaryah
Names with the same feeling
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