Aaliyah
Aaliyah was given to 2,607 girls in 2025, #101 among girls’ names; 110,077 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 109,000 Americans named Aaliyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 9 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aaliyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Aaliyah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Aaliyah is “a female given name from Arabic.”
Popularized by American singer Aaliyah Haughton (1979–2001). Transliteration of Arabic عَالِيَة (ʕāliya).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Aaliyah?
#101 among girls’ names, 2025
Aaliyah fell from #47 in 2015 to #101 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 2.7 to 1.6 per 1,000.
5,530 babies in 2012, the peak
Aaliyah peaked in 2012, when 5,530 babies were given it (5,523 girls, #36 among girls’ names). The 2,607 births of 2025 are 47% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,607 | #101 | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 2,712 | #95 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 2,858 | #85 | 1.8 |
| 2022 | 3,286 | #69 | 2.0 |
| 2021 | 3,619 | #61 | 2.2 |
| 2020 | 3,584 | #65 | 2.2 |
| 2019 | 3,675 | #70 | 2.2 |
| 2018 | 3,845 | #65 | 2.3 |
| 2017 | 4,197 | #57 | 2.4 |
| 2016 | 4,660 | #53 | 2.6 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,884 | #47 | 2.7 |
| 2014 | 4,902 | #45 | 2.7 |
| 2013 | 5,246 | #37 | 3.0 |
| 2012 | 5,523 | #36 | 3.1 |
| 2011 | 5,129 | #46 | 2.9 |
| 2010 | 4,673 | #56 | 2.6 |
| 2009 | 4,378 | #63 | 2.4 |
| 2008 | 4,046 | #76 | 2.1 |
| 2007 | 3,961 | #83 | 2.1 |
| 2006 | 3,745 | #90 | 2.0 |
| 2005 | 3,459 | #93 | 1.9 |
| 2004 | 3,492 | #94 | 1.9 |
| 2003 | 3,673 | #90 | 2.0 |
| 2002 | 4,779 | #64 | 2.7 |
| 2001 | 3,352 | #96 | 1.9 |
| 2000 | 1,496 | #211 | 0.82 |
| 1999 | 1,088 | #287 | 0.61 |
| 1998 | 1,399 | #222 | 0.79 |
| 1997 | 1,739 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 1996 | 831 | #335 | 0.47 |
| 1995 | 1,256 | #225 | 0.71 |
| 1994 | 1,451 | #202 | 0.81 |
| 1993 | 22 | #4,518 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 25 | #4,083 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 16 | #5,653 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 12 | #6,861 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 14 | #5,830 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 17 | #4,835 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 14 | #5,307 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 18 | #4,344 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,455 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,725 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 20 | #3,805 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 28 | #3,092 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 28 | #3,066 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 39 | #2,440 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 38 | #2,430 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 46 | #2,050 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 40 | #2,257 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 18 | #3,677 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Aaliyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Aaliyah has been given almost only to girls: 106 boys in 50 years of records.
Girls and boys named Aaliyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aaliyah, and how old are they?
109,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 110,077 Americans ever recorded as Aaliyah. The median Aaliyah alive today is 14 years old; half are between 9 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 69,241 people named Aaliyah (69,113 women and girls, 128 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 91,599 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 172 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,720 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 55,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 49,800 |
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 Aaliyah born?
The states with the most babies named Aaliyah are California, Texas and Florida, with 39% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 442 | #58 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 372 | #66 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 196 | #80 | 1.3× |
| New York | 122 | #130 | 0.9× |
| Arizona | 94 | #50 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 88 | #100 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 88 | #113 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 79 | #116 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 78 | #139 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 74 | #143 | 0.8× |
Where Aaliyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aaliyah is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1976 it was given 1.7 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 Aaliyah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 196,198 babies since 1880, Aaliyah is the most given (56% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,607 of their 5,342 babies (49%), again the most given.
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 Aaliyah
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 Aaliyah and names like it
- Compare Aaliyah and AliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAaliyah peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aaliyah since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Aaliyah: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Aaliyah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Aaliyah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.