Alaia
Alaia was given to 2,318 girls in 2025, #117 among girls’ names; 17,699 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 17,600 Americans named Alaia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 6.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alaia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alaia mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alaia is “a female given name from Basque.” Its etymology gives the sense “joyful” (alai).
Borrowed in the 21st century from Basque Alaia, from alai (“joyful”). For earlier use among English-speakers, compare Hebrew עֲלִיָּה ('alīyá, “ascent”), Arabic عَالِيَة (ʕāliya, “high, exalted”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alaia?
#117 among girls’ names, 2025
Alaia rose from #664 in 2015 to #117 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.24 to 1.4 per 1,000.
2,429 babies in 2024, the peak
Alaia peaked in 2024, when 2,429 girls were given it, #112 among girls’ names. The 2,324 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 96% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,318 | #117 | 1.4 |
| 2024 | 2,429 | #112 | 1.5 |
| 2023 | 2,305 | #120 | 1.4 |
| 2022 | 2,081 | #139 | 1.3 |
| 2021 | 2,219 | #128 | 1.4 |
| 2020 | 2,282 | #120 | 1.4 |
| 2019 | 1,604 | #184 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 527 | #583 | 0.31 |
| 2017 | 461 | #638 | 0.27 |
| 2016 | 487 | #615 | 0.27 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 429 | #664 | 0.24 |
| 2014 | 66 | #2,648 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 55 | #3,005 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 54 | #3,096 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 46 | #3,451 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 41 | #3,745 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 44 | #3,619 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 37 | #4,181 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 36 | #4,216 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 18 | #6,854 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 26 | #4,958 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 18 | #6,492 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 12 | #8,525 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,146 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 17 | #6,325 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,168 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 5 | #14,465 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 10 | #8,346 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 7 | #10,588 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #13,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 8 | #9,572 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #10,502 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 6 | #9,559 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alaia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alaia has been given almost only to girls: 17 boys in 33 years of records.
Girls and boys named Alaia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alaia, and how old are they?
17,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 17,699 Americans ever recorded as Alaia. The median Alaia alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 6.
The 2020 Census counted 3,199 people named Alaia (3,187 women and girls, 12 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,597 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% 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 | 32 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 382 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 17,200 |
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 Alaia born?
The states with the most babies named Alaia are Texas, California and Florida, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 344 | #72 | 1.2× |
| California | 336 | #88 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 252 | #56 | 1.7× |
| New York | 201 | #67 | 1.7× |
| New Jersey | 98 | #73 | 1.7× |
| Illinois | 79 | #117 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 70 | #141 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 68 | #144 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 65 | #171 | 0.9× |
| Arizona | 64 | #89 | 1.0× |
Where Alaia is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alaia is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1986 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 Alaia 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 132,413 babies since 1880, Alaia is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,324 of their 5,521 babies (42%), the 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 Alaia
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 Alaia and names like it
- Compare Alaia and AllieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAlaia peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alaia since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Alaia.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alaia alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.