Aysha
An Arabic feminine given name meaning "life" or "living".
Name Census estimates that about 3,000 living Americans carry the first name Aysha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aysha today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aysha births was 2024 (153 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aysha. 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 Aysha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 114,251 Americans
Peak year
2024
153 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,439
Tracked since 1969
Census
Aysha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,425 people with the first name Aysha, which placed it at #5,119 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
#5,119
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,425 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
34.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aysha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aysha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 34.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and White (19.9%). 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 Aysha 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 Aysha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander34.8% · 1,192
- Black or African American23.4% · 800
- White19.9% · 681
- Hispanic or Latino12.2% · 417
- Two or more races9.3% · 320
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 15
Popularity
Aysha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aysha from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 924 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Aysha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aysha 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 Aysha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ayshas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Aysha, while Missouri, Minnesota, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 66 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aysha
The name Aysha originates from the Arabic language and culture. It is a variation of the name Aisha, which means "alive" or "living." The name has its roots in the Arabic word "hayah," meaning life.
The name Aysha has been in use for centuries, with its earliest known reference found in Islamic literature and historical records. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Aisha, the third wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was born in 614 CE and was revered for her knowledge and wisdom.
Throughout history, the name Aysha has been borne by several notable individuals. One such person was Aysha al-Bauniyyah, a 12th-century Sufi mystic and scholar from Syria. Another notable bearer of the name was Aysha bint Talha, a 7th-century Muslim woman who fought alongside her father in the Battle of the Camel during the early Islamic civil wars.
In the 9th century, Aysha bint Muhammad al-Qurashiya was a renowned poet and scholar from Baghdad. She was known for her contributions to Arabic literature and her expertise in various fields, including Islamic jurisprudence and hadith studies.
In more recent times, Aysha Taryam was a prominent Emirati businesswoman and philanthropist who lived from 1938 to 2018. She was the founder of the Taryam Group, a successful business conglomerate, and was widely respected for her charitable work and support of education initiatives in the United Arab Emirates.
Another notable bearer of the name was Aysha Yahya al-Musa, a Kuwaiti writer and literary critic who was born in 1924. She played a significant role in promoting Arabic literature and culture, and her works explored themes of women's empowerment and social issues.
While these are just a few examples, the name Aysha has been borne by many influential and accomplished individuals throughout history, reflecting its deep roots and cultural significance within the Arabic-speaking world.
People
Aysha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aysha 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
Aysha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aysha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,000 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aysha 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 114,251 US residents.
Is Aysha a common name?
We classify Aysha as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,077 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aysha most popular?
The single biggest year for Aysha was 2024, when 153 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aysha is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aysha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,425 people with the name Aysha, or 1.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,119 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 Aysha 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 Aysha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aysha appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,420 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 Aysha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aysha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 34.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and White (19.9%). 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 Aysha most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Aysha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.8% (1,192 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 Aysha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aysha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aysha 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 Aysha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aysha 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 Aysha 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 Aysha?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.