Alijah
Alijah was given to 651 boys in 2025, #469 among boys’ names; 15,681 Americans have been recorded with it since 1987 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,500 Americans named Alijah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alijah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alijah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alijah is “a male given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alijah?
#469 among boys’ names, 2025
Alijah rose from #482 in 2015 to #469 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.32 to 0.38 per 1,000.
792 babies in 2021, the peak
Alijah peaked in 2021, when 792 babies were given it (762 boys, #408 among boys’ names). The 665 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 84% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 651 | #469 | 0.38 |
| 2024 | 739 | #429 | 0.43 |
| 2023 | 702 | #443 | 0.41 |
| 2022 | 653 | #470 | 0.37 |
| 2021 | 762 | #408 | 0.44 |
| 2020 | 669 | #447 | 0.39 |
| 2019 | 606 | #483 | 0.34 |
| 2018 | 590 | #489 | 0.32 |
| 2017 | 619 | #476 | 0.33 |
| 2016 | 588 | #509 | 0.31 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 621 | #482 | 0.32 |
| 2014 | 580 | #484 | 0.30 |
| 2013 | 526 | #509 | 0.28 |
| 2012 | 600 | #454 | 0.32 |
| 2011 | 582 | #458 | 0.31 |
| 2010 | 553 | #470 | 0.29 |
| 2009 | 580 | #471 | 0.29 |
| 2008 | 588 | #470 | 0.29 |
| 2007 | 468 | #550 | 0.23 |
| 2006 | 418 | #586 | 0.20 |
| 2005 | 379 | #596 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 333 | #633 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 300 | #658 | 0.15 |
| 2002 | 266 | #684 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 172 | #908 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 142 | #1,025 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 133 | #1,037 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 104 | #1,186 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 91 | #1,260 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,358 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 44 | #1,910 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 33 | #2,343 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 21 | #3,137 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 12 | #4,572 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 8 | #5,951 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 8 | #5,835 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 6 | #6,962 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #6,978 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alijah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 15,681 Americans recorded as Alijah, 9% are girls and 91% boys. In 2025 it went to 14 girls and 651 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Alijah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alijah, and how old are they?
15,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,681 Americans ever recorded as Alijah. The median Alijah alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 8,737 people named Alijah (991 women and girls, 7,746 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,417 born in the U.S. The Census count is 23% 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 | 324 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,420 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,770 |
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 Alijah born?
The states with the most babies named Alijah are Texas, California and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 90 | #393 | 1.1× |
| California | 80 | #413 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 58 | #331 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 33 | #340 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 29 | #381 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 28 | #407 | 1.1× |
| New York | 26 | #584 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 18 | #526 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 18 | #395 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 16 | #569 | 0.9× |
Where Alijah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alijah is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1987 it was given 1.6 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 boys’ 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 Alijah 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 16,899 babies since 1880, Alijah is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 665 of their 692 babies (96%), 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 Alijah
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 Alijah and names like it
- Compare Alijah and AalijahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAlijah peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alijah since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Alijah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alijah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.