Ally
Ally was given to 88 girls in 2025, #2,118 among girls’ names; 10,247 Americans have been recorded with it since 1985 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,100 Americans named Ally and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 13 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ally by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ally mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ally is “a diminutive of the female given names Alice, Alison, Alexandra, and other names beginning with Al-[[]], from the Germanic languages or Ancient Greek.”
Also “a diminutive of the male given names Alfred, Albert, Alan, Alexander, and other names beginning with Al-[[]], from the Germanic languages, the Celtic languages, or Ancient Greek.”
Diminutives + -y.
/ˈæliː/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ally?
#2,118 among girls’ names, 2025
Ally fell from #872 in 2015 to #2,118 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.18 to 0.05 per 1,000.
636 babies in 1998, the peak
Ally peaked in 1998, when 636 girls were given it, #417 among girls’ names. The 88 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 88 | #2,118 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 107 | #1,872 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 117 | #1,750 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 131 | #1,613 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 148 | #1,450 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 158 | #1,373 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 177 | #1,295 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 184 | #1,255 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 215 | #1,152 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 272 | #984 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 319 | #872 | 0.18 |
| 2014 | 381 | #737 | 0.21 |
| 2013 | 463 | #606 | 0.26 |
| 2012 | 499 | #584 | 0.28 |
| 2011 | 419 | #674 | 0.24 |
| 2010 | 418 | #686 | 0.24 |
| 2009 | 349 | #810 | 0.19 |
| 2008 | 383 | #767 | 0.20 |
| 2007 | 419 | #697 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 456 | #630 | 0.24 |
| 2005 | 425 | #652 | 0.23 |
| 2004 | 473 | #594 | 0.26 |
| 2003 | 394 | #670 | 0.22 |
| 2002 | 444 | #582 | 0.25 |
| 2001 | 383 | #657 | 0.21 |
| 2000 | 418 | #605 | 0.23 |
| 1999 | 540 | #480 | 0.30 |
| 1998 | 636 | #417 | 0.36 |
| 1997 | 184 | #1,036 | 0.11 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,839 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 73 | #1,895 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 60 | #2,204 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 74 | #1,897 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 61 | #2,186 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 43 | #2,733 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 62 | #2,096 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 55 | #2,190 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 40 | #2,644 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 44 | #2,360 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 26 | #3,359 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,358 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ally a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ally has been given almost only to girls: 17 boys in 41 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ally: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ally, and how old are they?
10,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,247 Americans ever recorded as Ally. The median Ally alive today is 19 years old; half are between 13 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 13,525 people named Ally (13,287 women and girls, 238 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,449 born in the U.S. The Census count is 43% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Ally rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 620 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,770 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,750 |
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 Ally born?
The states with the most babies named Ally are California, Texas and New York, with 64% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 13 | #1,656 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,401 | 0.8× |
| New York | 6 | #1,845 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,171 | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 5 | #1,137 | 1.4× |
| Missouri | 5 | #936 | 1.0× |
Where Ally is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ally is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1985 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 Ally 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 149,210 babies since 1880, Ally is the sixth most given (6.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 88 of their 5,814 babies (1.5%), the seventh 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 Ally
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 Ally and names like it
- Compare Ally and AllieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sAlly peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ally since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Ally.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ally alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.