Chaya (Hebrew given name)
Chaya is a Hebrew female given name. With its literal meaning "living", it is considered to be a feminine counterpart of the Hebrew masculine given name Haim. It has a number of other transliterations: Chaja, Haya, Khaya, Haia. East Slavic spelling: Хая.
Approximately before 1920s, for Ashkenazi Jews in Europe it was customary to record legal names of females in diminutive form. In the case of Chaya these were Chayka, Chaika, Chajka, Khaika, Khayka, etc. East Slavic spelling: Хайка.
Notable people with the given name include:
Variants of Chaya
- Chaja Florentin, interviewed in the 2009 German documentary Chaja & Mimi
- Chaja Goldstein, Polish-born Dutch dancer and singer
- Chaja Rubinstein, birth name of Helena Rubinstein, Polish-born American business magnate
- Chaya Arbel, Israeli composer
- Chaya Clara Heyn, Israeli botanist and professor
- Chaya Czernowin, Israeli composer
- , Israeli artist, recipient of several Dizengoff Prizes
- Chaya Gusfield, American attorney and rabbi
- Chaya Kaufman, birth name of Ariel Durant, Ukrainian-born American researcher and writer
- Chaya Lispector, birth name of Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer
- Chaya Mushka Schneersohn, member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty
- Chaya Mushka Schneerson, member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty
- Chaya Raichik, American blogger and owner of Libs of TikTok
- Haia Lifșiț, Russian Empire-born Romanian communist
- Haya Freedman, Polish-born Israeli mathematician
- Haya Harareet, Israeli actress
- Haya Kaspi, Israeli mathematician
- Haya Shalom, Israeli lesbian feminist and human rights activist
- Haya Shenhav, Israeli author of stories and poems for both children and adults
Variants of Chayka
- Chajka,, mistress of the Polish king Stanisław August Poniatowski
- Chajka Klinger, Jewish Holocaust resistance fighter
- Haika Grossman, Israeli politician, member of Knesset