Ayah
Ayah was given to 309 girls in 2025, #870 among girls’ names; 4,814 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,770 Americans named Ayah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ayah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ayah?
#870 among girls’ names, 2025
Ayah rose from #1,522 in 2015 to #870 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.08 to 0.19 per 1,000.
309 babies in 2025, the peak
Ayah peaked in 2025, when 309 girls were given it, #870 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 271 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 309 | #870 | 0.19 |
| 2024 | 271 | #964 | 0.17 |
| 2023 | 255 | #998 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 245 | #1,043 | 0.15 |
| 2021 | 243 | #1,038 | 0.15 |
| 2020 | 221 | #1,106 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 233 | #1,079 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 177 | #1,288 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 176 | #1,321 | 0.10 |
| 2016 | 168 | #1,386 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 148 | #1,522 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 120 | #1,737 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 136 | #1,580 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 129 | #1,652 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 112 | #1,805 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 135 | #1,605 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 131 | #1,696 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 118 | #1,827 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 127 | #1,715 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 123 | #1,702 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 135 | #1,525 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 123 | #1,593 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 121 | #1,592 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 127 | #1,493 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 133 | #1,421 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 99 | #1,758 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 88 | #1,805 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 69 | #2,102 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 61 | #2,229 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 54 | #2,395 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 48 | #2,586 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 32 | #3,450 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 43 | #2,771 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 32 | #3,426 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 22 | #4,509 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 19 | #4,874 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 7 | #9,773 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,460 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #9,946 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #11,058 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ayah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ayah has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 40 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ayah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ayah, and how old are they?
4,770 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,814 Americans ever recorded as Ayah. The median Ayah alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 3,060 people named Ayah (3,042 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,295 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 270 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,810 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,690 |
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 Ayah born?
The states with the most babies named Ayah are California, New York and Texas, with 36% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 38 | #790 | 0.8× |
| New York | 35 | #484 | 1.5× |
| Texas | 27 | #1,040 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 16 | #625 | 1.0× |
| Minnesota | 16 | #346 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 14 | #559 | 2.8× |
| Florida | 14 | #1,062 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 14 | #545 | 1.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | #730 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 13 | #583 | 1.3× |
Where Ayah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ayah is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1986 it was given 2.8 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 Ayah 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 13,977 babies since 1880, Ayah is the second most given (34% of them). In 2025 it was given to 309 of their 849 babies (36%), 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 Ayah
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 Ayah and names like it
- Compare Ayah and AyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAyah peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ayah since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Ayah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ayah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.