Ayala
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "female deer or doe".
Name Census estimates that about 1,107 living Americans carry the first name Ayala. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ayala today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ayala births was 2023 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ayala. 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 Ayala with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ayala is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 309,625 Americans
Peak year
2023
74 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,168
Tracked since 1974
Census
Ayala in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,067 people with the first name Ayala, which placed it at #11,844 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
#11,844
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,067 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ayala
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayala is White at 64.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.2%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Ayala 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 Ayala at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.9% · 693
- Hispanic or Latino17.2% · 184
- Black or African American12.5% · 133
- Two or more races3.3% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Ayala: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ayala 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 395 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ayala remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ayala 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 Ayala during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ayalas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Ayala, while Florida, California, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 123 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ayala
The name Ayala is a Hebrew name that originated in ancient Israel. It is derived from the Hebrew word "ayyal," which means "deer" or "gazelle." The name was originally a descriptive term used to refer to someone who was graceful, agile, or fleet-footed like a deer.
In the Bible, the name Ayala is mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, where it is used as a metaphor for a virtuous and beautiful woman. The verse reads, "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones" (Proverbs 12:4). This biblical reference suggests that the name Ayala has been in use since ancient times.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ayala comes from the 11th century, when a Jewish woman named Ayala lived in Spain during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in that country. She was known for her poetry and her contributions to the literary and intellectual life of the time.
In the 13th century, a famous Jewish philosopher and theologian named Ayala al-Mawsiliyya lived in Mosul, Iraq. She was known for her writings on ethics and her commentaries on the works of Aristotle and other philosophers.
During the Middle Ages, the name Ayala was also used by Christians in some parts of Europe, particularly in Spain and Portugal. One notable example is Ayala de Meneses, a Portuguese noblewoman who lived in the 15th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and her support for the Portuguese exploration of the world.
In more recent times, the name Ayala has been used by several notable individuals, including the Mexican writer and activist Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), who wrote under the pen name Ayala Cuadro, and the Venezuelan-American artist Margarita Ayala (1937-2016), who was known for her abstract expressionist paintings.
Other notable individuals with the name Ayala include the American actress and singer Ayala Pines (1922-2005), the Israeli writer and poet Ayala Zak-Manger (1915-2004), and the Mexican actress and singer Ayala Muniz (1935-2019).
Overall, the name Ayala has a rich and varied history that spans many cultures and time periods. Its origins in Hebrew and its biblical references suggest that it has been in use for thousands of years, and it has been carried by many notable individuals throughout history.
People
Ayala + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ayala 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
Ayala: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ayala?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,107 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ayala 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 309,625 US residents.
Is Ayala a common name?
We classify Ayala as "Rare". It ranks above 90.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ayala most popular?
The single biggest year for Ayala was 2023, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ayala is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ayala in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,067 people with the name Ayala, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,844 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 Ayala 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 Ayala?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ayala leans strongly female. 992 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 75 male bearers (7.0%). 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 Ayala?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayala is White at 64.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.2%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Ayala most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ayala in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.9% (693 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 Ayala in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ayala a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ayala 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 Ayala still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ayala 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 Ayala 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 have the name Ayala?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.