Alaa
A feminine Arabic name meaning "the exalted one" or "sublime".
Name Census estimates that about 1,898 living Americans carry the first name Alaa. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Alaa today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alaa births was 2017 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alaa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Alaa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 180,587 Americans
Peak year
2017
69 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,814
Tracked since 1979
Census
Alaa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,363 people with the first name Alaa, which placed it at #4,333 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,333
National first-name rank
People counted
4.4K
4,363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alaa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaa is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Black (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Alaa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Alaa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.6% · 3,733
- Two or more races6.2% · 271
- Black or African American6.1% · 268
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 54
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Alaa
Alaa is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,933 total registrations, 458 (23.7%) were male and 1,475 (76.3%) were female.
Alaa as a male name
- Ranked #8,979 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (24 births)
Alaa as a female name
- Ranked #2,814 in 2024
- 59 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (61 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Alaa on both sides of the split. Of the 4,362 people counted with this name, 1,992 were male (45.7%) and 2,370 were female (54.3%).
Popularity
Alaa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alaa from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 580 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Alaa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alaa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Alaa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alaas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Michigan, New York, California recorded the most babies named Alaa, while Texas, South Carolina, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alaa
The name Alaa has its origins in Arabic, with roots that can be traced back to the 8th century. It is derived from the Arabic word "ala'a," which means "to rise" or "to ascend." This name was particularly prevalent in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa, where Arabic culture and language have had a significant influence.
The earliest recorded use of the name Alaa can be found in ancient Islamic texts and historical records. It was a popular name among Arab scholars, poets, and intellectuals during the golden age of Islamic civilization. One notable figure who bore this name was Alaa al-Din ibn al-Nafis, a Syrian physician and scholar who lived in the 13th century. He made significant contributions to the field of medicine, including the discovery of pulmonary circulation and the description of the coronary arteries.
Throughout history, several other notable individuals have carried the name Alaa. In the 10th century, Alaa al-Dawla Bahā' al-Dīn was a prominent Persian ruler and military commander who played a crucial role in the Buyid dynasty. Another prominent figure was Alaa al-Din Khilji, who ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century and was known for his military conquests and expansionist policies.
In the realm of literature, Alaa al-Din Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, is widely celebrated for his profound spiritual works, including the renowned Masnavi. His poetry and teachings have had a lasting influence on Persian and Islamic culture.
Moving forward in time, Alaa al-Aswany, an Egyptian novelist and dentist born in 1957, has gained international recognition for his critically acclaimed novels, such as "The Yacoubian Building" and "Chicago," which explore themes of social and political issues in contemporary Egyptian society.
It is worth noting that while the name Alaa has its roots in Arabic culture, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and regions, particularly those with strong Islamic influences or ties to the Middle East.
People
Alaa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alaa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Alaa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alaa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,898 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alaa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 180,587 US residents.
Is Alaa a common name?
We classify Alaa as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,933 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alaa most popular?
The single biggest year for Alaa was 2017, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alaa is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alaa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,363 people with the name Alaa, or 1.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,333 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Alaa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Alaa?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Alaa on both sides of the split. Of the 4,362 people counted with this name, 1,992 were male (45.7%) and 2,370 were female (54.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Alaa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaa is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Black (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Alaa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alaa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (3,733 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Alaa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alaa a female name?
Yes, 76.3% of people registered as Alaa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Alaa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alaa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Alaa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Alaa?
You can see how many Americans are named Alaa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.