Alya
Alya was given to 167 girls in 2025, #1,334 among girls’ names; 2,242 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,220 Americans named Alya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alya mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Alya is “a female given name from Arabic”
A variation of Aliye.
/ˈal.ja/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alya?
#1,334 among girls’ names, 2025
Alya rose from #2,849 in 2015 to #1,334 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.03 to 0.10 per 1,000.
190 babies in 2021, the peak
Alya peaked in 2021, when 190 girls were given it, #1,237 among girls’ names. The 167 births of 2025 are 88% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 167 | #1,334 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 181 | #1,279 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 162 | #1,387 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 144 | #1,508 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 190 | #1,237 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 145 | #1,475 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 113 | #1,802 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 82 | #2,241 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 83 | #2,257 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 69 | #2,565 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 61 | #2,849 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 60 | #2,843 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 68 | #2,597 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 49 | #3,317 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 48 | #3,356 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 55 | #3,045 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 45 | #3,562 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 42 | #3,783 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 44 | #3,653 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 45 | #3,505 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 30 | #4,490 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 28 | #4,705 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 29 | #4,418 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 25 | #4,774 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 31 | #4,025 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 38 | #3,452 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 18 | #5,674 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 23 | #4,640 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 16 | #5,886 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 13 | #6,731 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 15 | #5,967 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,717 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,627 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 15 | #6,015 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,353 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,316 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 7 | #9,702 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 13 | #5,902 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 10 | #6,799 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #8,551 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #10,470 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,440 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,112 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,461 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Alya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alya, and how old are they?
2,220 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,242 Americans ever recorded as Alya. The median Alya alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 1,517 people named Alya (1,499 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,278 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 17 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 130 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 560 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,520 |
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 Alya born?
The states with the most babies named Alya are California, Florida and New York, with 49% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 28 | #968 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 20 | #796 | 1.0× |
| New York | 16 | #947 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,624 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 13 | #575 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 11 | #800 | 0.4× |
| Colorado | 7 | #712 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,286 | 0.2× |
| Virginia | 5 | #1,187 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,220 | 0.2× |
Where Alya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alya is most over-represented in New York: since 1973 it was given 1.4 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 Alya 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 160,978 babies since 1880, Alya is the eighth most given (1.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 167 of their 9,182 babies (1.8%), again the eighth 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 Alya
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 Alya and names like it
- Compare Alya and AliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAlya peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alya since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Alya: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Alya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.