Alliyah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "rising, sublime, or exalted".
Name Census estimates that about 2,945 living Americans carry the first name Alliyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alliyah today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alliyah births was 2002 (173 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alliyah. 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 Alliyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.9K
~ 1 in 116,385 Americans
Peak year
2002
173 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,242
Tracked since 1994
Census
Alliyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,501 people with the first name Alliyah, which placed it at #6,424 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
#6,424
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,501 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
38.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alliyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alliyah is Black at 38.4%. The next largest groups are White (23.0%) and Hispanic (20.7%). 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 Alliyah 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 Alliyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American38.4% · 961
- White23.0% · 574
- Hispanic or Latino20.7% · 517
- Two or more races12.0% · 301
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 122
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 26
Popularity
Alliyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alliyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,373 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alliyah 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 Alliyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alliyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Alliyah, while Maryland, Arizona, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alliyah
The name Alliyah is of Arabic and Hebrew origin. In Arabic, it is derived from the word 'al-ilya', meaning 'the highest' or 'the most exalted'. In Hebrew, it is a feminine form of the name Elijah, meaning 'my God is Yahweh'.
Alliyah has been a popular name in the Middle East and among Jewish communities for centuries. It is believed to have first appeared in ancient texts and religious scriptures, such as the Quran and the Bible, where Elijah was a prominent prophet.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Alliyah dates back to the 12th century. Alliyah bint al-Hafiz was a renowned poet and scholar who lived in Aleppo, Syria, during the Ayyubid period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures with the name Alliyah. Alliyah Salah, born in 1668, was an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy.
In the 19th century, Alliyah Abd al-Rahman was a prominent Egyptian feminist and activist who fought for women's rights and education.
Alliyah Nusrat, born in 1880, was a Palestinian poet and writer who gained recognition for her works that celebrated Palestinian culture and identity.
In the 20th century, Alliyah Khanum, born in 1905, was a renowned Afghan singer and actress who played a significant role in promoting Afghan music and culture.
Another notable figure was Alliyah Kuzat, born in 1923, a Turkish writer and journalist who was known for her works that explored themes of social injustice and women's rights.
People
Alliyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alliyah 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
Alliyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alliyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,945 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alliyah 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 116,385 US residents.
Is Alliyah a common name?
We classify Alliyah as "Rare". It ranks above 95.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,995 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alliyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Alliyah was 2002, when 173 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alliyah is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alliyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,501 people with the name Alliyah, or 0.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,424 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 Alliyah 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 Alliyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alliyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,495 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Alliyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alliyah is Black at 38.4%. The next largest groups are White (23.0%) and Hispanic (20.7%). 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 Alliyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alliyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.4% (961 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 Alliyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alliyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alliyah 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 Alliyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alliyah 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 Alliyah 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 Alliyah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.