Aylah
An Arabic feminine name meaning "towards the highest level".
Name Census estimates that about 2,141 living Americans carry the first name Aylah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aylah today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aylah births was 2021 (213 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aylah. 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 Aylah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Aylah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 160,091 Americans
Peak year
2021
213 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,326
Tracked since 1988
Census
Aylah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,072 people with the first name Aylah, which placed it at #11,797 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
#11,797
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,072 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aylah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aylah is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.4%) and Black (14.5%). 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 Aylah 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 Aylah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.6% · 542
- Hispanic or Latino20.4% · 219
- Black or African American14.5% · 155
- Two or more races10.3% · 110
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 11
Popularity
Aylah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aylah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 918 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aylah 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 Aylah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aylahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Aylah, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aylah
The name Aylah is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Ayala, which means "doe" or "female deer." The name has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages spoken in the Middle East, and it likely emerged during the biblical era.
In the Hebrew Bible, the word "ayalah" is used to refer to a doe or a female deer, and it appears in several passages, such as Proverbs 5:19 and Song of Songs 2:7. This suggests that the name Aylah may have been derived from this word, perhaps as a symbolic representation of grace, beauty, or gentleness.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Aylah was a Jewish woman named Aylah bat Shlomo, who lived in the 12th century CE in Spain. She was a renowned poet and scholar, known for her contributions to Hebrew literature during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Andalusia.
Another notable figure with this name was Aylah Bint Al-Shamikh Al-Qurashiyyah, a 7th-century Arabian poet who lived during the early Islamic era. She was renowned for her eloquence and her mastery of the Arabic language, and some of her poems have been preserved in various anthologies.
In the 19th century, Aylah Sutherland was a Scottish author and educator who wrote several books on the history and culture of Scotland. She played a significant role in promoting Scottish literature and preserving the country's cultural heritage.
During the 20th century, Aylah Bentov was an Israeli artist and sculptor who gained recognition for her abstract and figurative works. Her sculptures, often inspired by biblical themes and the natural world, can be found in various public spaces and galleries across Israel.
More recently, Aylah Ashmawey is an Egyptian-American actress and model who has appeared in several films and television shows. Born in 1989, she has gained recognition for her roles in productions such as "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" and the CBS drama "SEAL Team."
While the name Aylah has its roots in ancient Semitic languages, it has been adopted and used across various cultures throughout history, with individuals bearing this name making notable contributions in fields like literature, art, and entertainment.
People
Aylah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aylah 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
Aylah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aylah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,141 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aylah 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 160,091 US residents.
Is Aylah a common name?
We classify Aylah as "Rare". It ranks above 94% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,159 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aylah most popular?
The single biggest year for Aylah was 2021, when 213 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aylah is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aylah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,072 people with the name Aylah, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,797 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 Aylah 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 Aylah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aylah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,075 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Aylah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aylah is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.4%) and Black (14.5%). 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 Aylah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aylah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.6% (542 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 Aylah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aylah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aylah 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 Aylah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aylah 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 Aylah 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 common is the name Aylah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Aylah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.