Aleiyah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "ascended" or "to go up".
Name Census estimates that about 558 living Americans carry the first name Aleiyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aleiyah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aleiyah births was 2019 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aleiyah. 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 Aleiyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
558
~ 1 in 614,255 Americans
Peak year
2019
35 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,924
Tracked since 1994
Census
Aleiyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 348 people with the first name Aleiyah, which placed it at #26,649 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
#26,649
National first-name rank
People counted
348
348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
37.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aleiyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aleiyah is Black at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.9%) and White (17.8%). 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 Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American37.4% · 130
- Hispanic or Latino23.9% · 83
- White17.8% · 62
- Two or more races14.7% · 51
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.0% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Aleiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aleiyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 270 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aleiyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aleiyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Washington recorded the most babies named Aleiyah, while Washington, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aleiyah
The name Aleiyah is a variant spelling of the Arabic name Aliyah, which means "exalted" or "elevated." It originates from the Arabic root word 'ala, meaning "to rise" or "to ascend." The name has been in use since ancient times in the Middle East and among Arabic-speaking communities.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Aleiyah can be found in Islamic literature, particularly in the Quran, where it is used as a feminine form of the word 'aliyy, which means "high" or "lofty." In this context, the name symbolizes a person's spiritual elevation or ascension towards a higher state of being.
Historically, the name Aleiyah has been associated with notable figures in various fields. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Aliyah bint Ahmad al-Basriyya, a renowned Muslim scholar and poet who lived in the 9th century CE. She was known for her expertise in Arabic literature and her contributions to the field of Islamic jurisprudence.
Another notable figure with the name Aleiyah was Aliyah al-Idrisi, a 12th-century Muslim cartographer and geographer from Morocco. She is credited with creating one of the most advanced world maps of her time, known as the Tabula Rogeriana, which was commissioned by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily.
In the realm of arts and culture, Aleiyah has been the name of several accomplished individuals. One such person was Aleiyah Hakim, a 13th-century Persian poet and mystic, renowned for her spiritual and romantic poetry. Her works have been widely celebrated and studied within the Persian literary tradition.
Moving forward in history, Aleiyah Khanum was a prominent 19th-century Armenian painter and artist. She was known for her portraits and landscapes, and her works are considered significant in the development of Armenian art during the Ottoman period.
In more recent times, the name Aleiyah gained widespread recognition through the American singer and songwriter Aaliyah Dana Haughton (1979-2001), who was known simply as Aaliyah. She was a influential figure in the contemporary R&B and pop music scenes, and her untimely death in a plane crash at the age of 22 made her a cultural icon.
People
Aleiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aleiyah 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
Aleiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aleiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 558 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aleiyah 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 614,255 US residents.
Is Aleiyah a common name?
We classify Aleiyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 564 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aleiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Aleiyah was 2019, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aleiyah is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aleiyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 348 people with the name Aleiyah, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,649 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 Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aleiyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 349 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Aleiyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aleiyah is Black at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.9%) and White (17.8%). 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 Aleiyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Aleiyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.4% (130 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 Aleiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aleiyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah 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 Americans are named Aleiyah?
Want to know how many people have the name Aleiyah? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.