Aaleyah
Aaleyah was given to 21 girls in 2025, #5,721 among girls’ names; 1,441 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,430 Americans named Aaleyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 9 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aaleyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Aaleyah?
#5,721 among girls’ names, 2025
Aaleyah fell from #1,477 in 2015 to #5,721 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 86.8 to 13.1 per million.
155 babies in 2015, the peak
Aaleyah peaked in 2015, when 155 girls were given it, #1,477 among girls’ names. The 21 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21 | #5,721 | 13.1 |
| 2024 | 20 | #5,959 | 12.3 |
| 2023 | 23 | #5,386 | 14.3 |
| 2022 | 33 | #4,293 | 20.1 |
| 2021 | 41 | #3,677 | 25.0 |
| 2020 | 52 | #3,061 | 32.2 |
| 2019 | 54 | #3,002 | 32.2 |
| 2018 | 77 | #2,361 | 45.3 |
| 2017 | 96 | #2,035 | 55.6 |
| 2016 | 104 | #1,929 | 58.7 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 155 | #1,477 | 86.8 |
| 2014 | 106 | #1,892 | 59.3 |
| 2013 | 116 | #1,761 | 66.1 |
| 2012 | 92 | #2,078 | 52.2 |
| 2011 | 75 | #2,433 | 42.6 |
| 2010 | 75 | #2,476 | 42.2 |
| 2009 | 51 | #3,251 | 27.8 |
| 2008 | 32 | #4,647 | 16.9 |
| 2007 | 36 | #4,212 | 18.7 |
| 2006 | 20 | #6,354 | 10.5 |
| 2005 | 18 | #6,523 | 9.7 |
| 2004 | 17 | #6,763 | 9.3 |
| 2003 | 13 | #7,993 | 7.1 |
| 2002 | 17 | #6,386 | 9.5 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,096 | 5.0 |
| 2000 | 11 | #8,526 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 8 | #10,338 | 4.5 |
| 1998 | 14 | #6,715 | 7.9 |
| 1997 | 18 | #5,413 | 10.3 |
| 1996 | 11 | #7,569 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 8 | #9,548 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 18 | #5,244 | 10.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Aaleyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Aaleyah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Aaleyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aaleyah, and how old are they?
1,430 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,441 Americans ever recorded as Aaleyah. The median Aaleyah alive today is 12 years old; half are between 9 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 941 people named Aaleyah (938 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,255 born in the U.S. The Census count is 25% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 36 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 501 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 892 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Aaleyah born?
The states with the most babies named Aaleyah are California, Texas and Florida, with 73% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 183 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 168 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Florida | 66 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 42 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New York | 30 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 18 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Michigan | 12 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 11 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Nevada | 6 | not ranked | 0.5× |
Where Aaleyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aaleyah is most over-represented in Texas: since 1994 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Aaleyah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Aaleyah?
Aaleyah is a less common spelling of Alaia: SSA has recorded 1,441 Aaleyah and 17,699 Alaia since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 212,909 babies since 1880, Aaleyah is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 21 of their 7,298 babies (<1%), the seventh most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Aaleyah
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Aaleyah and names like it
- Compare Aaleyah and AlaiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAaleyah peaked in 2015.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aaleyah since 1910.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Aaleyah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Aaleyah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.