Alija
Alija was given to 5 boys in 2025, #12,094 among boys’ names; 179 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alija by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alija mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alija is “a transliteration of the Macedonian male given name Алија (Alija).”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alija?
#12,094 among boys’ names, 2025
Alija entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #12,094 in 2025.
13 babies in 2013, the peak
Alija peaked in 2013, when 13 babies were given it (5 boys, #12,207 among boys’ names). The 5 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 5 | #12,094 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 6 | #11,008 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 6 | #10,879 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 7 | #9,870 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 8 | #8,859 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 12 | #6,635 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 12 | #6,791 | |
| 2018 | under 5 | 7 | #9,714 | |
| 2017 | 5 | #16,034 | under 5 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 7 | #9,678 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 8 | #12,042 | 5 | #12,207 |
| 2012 | under 5 | 8 | #8,887 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 6 | #10,853 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 8 | #8,831 | |
| 2009 | 5 | #17,424 | 7 | #9,898 |
| 2008 | under 5 | 7 | #9,895 | |
| 2006 | 6 | #15,231 | 5 | #12,117 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 7 | #9,151 | |
| 2002 | 10 | #9,506 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 7 | #8,365 | |
| 2000 | 9 | #9,911 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | 6 | #11,829 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Alija a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 179 Americans recorded as Alija, 27% are girls and 73% boys. In 2025 it went to 5 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Alija: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alija, and how old are they?
An estimated 177 Americans named Alija and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 7 and 20. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 566 people named Alija (170 women and girls, 396 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 137 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Alija rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 17,803 babies since 1880, Alija is the fifth most given (1.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 714 babies (<1%), 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 Alija
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 Alija and names like it
- Compare Alija and AlijahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAlija peaked in 2013.
- The top names of 2013The year the most babies were named Alija.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alija alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.