Alayah
Alayah was given to 756 girls in 2025, #412 among girls’ names; 12,228 Americans have been recorded with it since 1992 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,100 Americans named Alayah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alayah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alayah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alayah is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alayah?
#412 among girls’ names, 2025
Alayah rose from #572 in 2015 to #412 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.30 to 0.47 per 1,000.
1,136 babies in 2020, the peak
Alayah peaked in 2020, when 1,136 girls were given it, #278 among girls’ names. The 756 births of 2025 are 67% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 756 | #412 | 0.47 |
| 2024 | 752 | #416 | 0.46 |
| 2023 | 793 | #387 | 0.49 |
| 2022 | 866 | #367 | 0.53 |
| 2021 | 1,004 | #325 | 0.61 |
| 2020 | 1,136 | #278 | 0.70 |
| 2019 | 899 | #351 | 0.54 |
| 2018 | 592 | #530 | 0.35 |
| 2017 | 578 | #534 | 0.33 |
| 2016 | 580 | #536 | 0.33 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 537 | #572 | 0.30 |
| 2014 | 553 | #557 | 0.31 |
| 2013 | 463 | #605 | 0.26 |
| 2012 | 424 | #668 | 0.24 |
| 2011 | 373 | #740 | 0.21 |
| 2010 | 317 | #847 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 262 | #1,007 | 0.14 |
| 2008 | 232 | #1,113 | 0.12 |
| 2007 | 202 | #1,230 | 0.11 |
| 2006 | 153 | #1,454 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 138 | #1,508 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 105 | #1,810 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 90 | #2,000 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 92 | #1,913 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 66 | #2,375 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 57 | #2,589 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 41 | #3,146 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 36 | #3,351 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 31 | #3,626 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 28 | #3,829 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 37 | #3,084 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 25 | #4,113 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,071 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alayah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alayah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Alayah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alayah, and how old are they?
12,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,228 Americans ever recorded as Alayah. The median Alayah alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 5,262 people named Alayah (5,240 women and girls, 22 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,159 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% 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 | 98 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,450 |
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 Alayah born?
The states with the most babies named Alayah are Texas, Florida and California, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 84 | #397 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 70 | #274 | 1.1× |
| California | 68 | #491 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 38 | #290 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 35 | #305 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 33 | #331 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 31 | #350 | 1.4× |
| Michigan | 30 | #293 | 1.7× |
| New York | 30 | #551 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 29 | #374 | 1.0× |
Where Alayah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alayah is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1992 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 Alayah 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 233,651 babies since 1880, Alayah is the fifth most given (5.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 756 of their 8,497 babies (8.9%), again the fifth 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 Alayah
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 Alayah and names like it
- Compare Alayah and AaliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAlayah peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alayah since 1910.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Alayah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alayah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.