Aliyah
Aliyah was given to 1,188 girls in 2025, #263 among girls’ names; 49,054 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 48,600 Americans named Aliyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 9 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aliyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Aliyah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Aliyah is “a female given name from Arabic of modern American usage, a variant of Aaliyah.”
Also “a female given name from Hebrew.”
Ultimately from Arabic عَالِيَة (ʕāliya).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Aliyah?
#263 among girls’ names, 2025
Aliyah fell from #164 in 2015 to #263 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.1 to 0.74 per 1,000.
2,301 babies in 2011, the peak
Aliyah peaked in 2011, when 2,301 girls were given it, #133 among girls’ names. The 1,188 births of 2025 are 52% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,188 | #263 | 0.74 |
| 2024 | 1,314 | #237 | 0.81 |
| 2023 | 1,352 | #220 | 0.84 |
| 2022 | 1,308 | #233 | 0.80 |
| 2021 | 1,441 | #208 | 0.88 |
| 2020 | 1,532 | #188 | 0.95 |
| 2019 | 1,678 | #173 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 1,777 | #161 | 1.0 |
| 2017 | 1,915 | #154 | 1.1 |
| 2016 | 2,008 | #155 | 1.1 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,974 | #164 | 1.1 |
| 2014 | 1,971 | #167 | 1.1 |
| 2013 | 2,115 | #148 | 1.2 |
| 2012 | 2,265 | #140 | 1.3 |
| 2011 | 2,301 | #133 | 1.3 |
| 2010 | 2,163 | #143 | 1.2 |
| 2009 | 1,991 | #158 | 1.1 |
| 2008 | 1,754 | #191 | 0.93 |
| 2007 | 1,611 | #213 | 0.84 |
| 2006 | 1,452 | #235 | 0.76 |
| 2005 | 1,462 | #233 | 0.79 |
| 2004 | 1,529 | #221 | 0.83 |
| 2003 | 1,392 | #236 | 0.76 |
| 2002 | 1,607 | #203 | 0.89 |
| 2001 | 1,411 | #226 | 0.78 |
| 2000 | 1,116 | #287 | 0.61 |
| 1999 | 867 | #345 | 0.49 |
| 1998 | 878 | #336 | 0.50 |
| 1997 | 897 | #322 | 0.52 |
| 1996 | 675 | #392 | 0.39 |
| 1995 | 785 | #338 | 0.45 |
| 1994 | 732 | #357 | 0.41 |
| 1993 | 66 | #2,063 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 56 | #2,313 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 48 | #2,546 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 45 | #2,595 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 26 | #3,779 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 38 | #2,740 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 32 | #2,972 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 31 | #2,975 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 27 | #3,247 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 31 | #2,852 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 28 | #2,978 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 21 | #3,783 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 26 | #3,254 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 23 | #3,510 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,097 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #8,588 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,576 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,184 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,782 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,457 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,358 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Aliyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Aliyah has been given almost only to girls: 43 boys in 53 years of records.
Girls and boys named Aliyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aliyah, and how old are they?
48,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 49,054 Americans ever recorded as Aliyah. The median Aliyah alive today is 15 years old; half are between 9 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 33,713 people named Aliyah (33,630 women and girls, 83 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 40,977 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% 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 | 71 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,610 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 24,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 21,500 |
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 Aliyah born?
The states with the most babies named Aliyah are California, Texas and Florida, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 181 | #179 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 168 | #200 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 99 | #179 | 1.3× |
| New York | 59 | #283 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 43 | #258 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 40 | #257 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 38 | #289 | 0.9× |
| Arizona | 37 | #173 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 36 | #295 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 35 | #207 | 0.9× |
Where Aliyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aliyah is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1971 it was given 1.5 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 Aliyah 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 229,980 babies since 1880, Aliyah is the second most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,188 of their 6,672 babies (18%), again the second 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 Aliyah
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 Aliyah and names like it
- Compare Aliyah and AaliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAliyah peaked in 2011.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aliyah since 1910.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Aliyah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Aliyah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.