Head to head · Girls' names
Ailani vs Skylar
#168 vs #167 in 2025
Skylar is a whisker ahead (#167 vs #168 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Skylar is stepping back from its peak, Ailani is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Ailani has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Skylar leads 5 measures of 6; Ailani leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1970s: Ailani —, Skylar #6340 — Skylar higher
- 1980s: Ailani —, Skylar #3300 — Skylar higher
- 1990s: Ailani #10433, Skylar #392 — Skylar higher
- 2000s: Ailani #3078, Skylar #156 — Skylar higher
- 2010s: Ailani #1489, Skylar #77 — Skylar higher
- 2020s: Ailani #438, Skylar #106 — Skylar higher
Skylar stood higher in every recorded decade — 6 of 6.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ailani | Skylar |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | — | #6340 |
| 1980s | — | #3300 |
| 1990s | #10433 | #392 |
| 2000s | #3078 | #156 |
| 2010s | #1489 | #77 |
| 2020s | #438 | #106 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ailani
Not established
Baby-name listings often gloss Ailani as "high chief", joining Hawaiian ali'i (chief) and lani (sky, heaven). That reading is not established, and Ailani is not attested as a traditional Hawaiian name. What is documented is the -lani element itself: a real Hawaiian word for sky or heaven, found in names like Leilani and Noelani. Beyond that, nobody has settled where this spelling came from.
Our story of Ailani — where the record runs out
No one has traced where Ailani began, and the honest picture is of a name that surfaced in American records rather than traveling in from somewhere older. What it plainly belongs to is a family: the -lani names — Leilani, Kailani, Noelani — built on a genuine Hawaiian word for sky, which spread far beyond the islands over the last century.
Skylar
From the Dutch surname Schuyler — read either as "scholar" or as "shelter, one who takes cover"
Two readings compete for Schuyler. One connects it to Dutch schuilen, "to shelter, to take cover"; the other to a word for scholar or schoolmaster. Neither has won. Worth adding: the modern spelling with -sky- is an English reshaping, not an older root — the sky in Skylar is a happy accident of transliteration rather than an etymology.
Schuyler (Dutch surname) → Schuyler (American given name) → Skyler → Skylar
How it traveled
The Schuylers were a prominent Dutch family in colonial New York, and like many Dutch surnames of the Hudson Valley the name was gradually respelled to match English spelling habits — Schuyler to Skyler to Skylar. American parents began using surnames as first names in earnest through the twentieth century, and this one arrived as part of that wave, helped by a spelling that looks like an ordinary English word.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Ailani
eye-LAH-nee
Both eye-LAH-nee and ay-LAH-nee are in real use; the first syllable is the only unsettled part, and families tend to fix it themselves. The -LAH-nee ending is stable everywhere.
- Lani — The most natural short form, and a standing given name in its own right in Hawaiian usage.
- Ani — Informal clipping of the last two syllables; also used independently as a given name in Armenian.
- Ai — A very short household form, mostly spoken rather than written.
Skylar
SKY-lar
Two syllables, stress on the first. The pronunciation is the same for Skylar, Skyler and Schuyler — only the spelling changes.
- Sky — The everyday short form, informal, and also used on its own as a given name.
- Skye — The same short form spelled after the Scottish island; stands alone as an independent name too.
Who has carried each name
Ailani
No documented entry for Ailani yet.
Skylar
Skylar Grey (b. 1986) — Songwriter behind Eminem and Rihanna hits
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ailani if you want…
- a name on the way upup 374 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itAilani runs 3 syllables, Skylar 2
Choose Skylar if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsSkylar is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesSkylar is 2 syllables to Ailani's 3
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Ailani
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds in both English and Spanish, with no silent letters and no doubled consonants to explain.
- Sits inside a recognizable family of names — Leilani, Kailani, Alani — so it sounds familiar even to people meeting it for the first time.
- Rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it in a classroom, while the sound itself is widely known.
To consider
- The opening syllable is genuinely ambiguous — eye- or ay- — so expect to correct it, politely and often, throughout life.
- It lives close to Alani, Leilani, Kailani and the spelling Ailany, and mail and rosters will sometimes drift into one of those.
- The "high chief" meaning circulating online isn't established, so it's worth deciding now whether you mind being asked what it means and not having a firm answer.
Skylar
Strengths
- Reads correctly at first sight for English speakers: nobody has to be taught how to say it.
- A ready-made short form in Sky, which also works as a standalone name.
- A documented surname line running back to the Dutch of colonial New York, not a recent invention.
To consider
- Skyler, Schuyler and Skylar all sound identical, so expect to spell it out often. Choosing one and sticking to it is most of the battle.
- The name's rise is recent and its wave is stepping back, which means it reads as belonging to a particular young cohort rather than to any generation before it.
- Boys and girls both carry it, but the -ar spelling now runs mostly to girls in the US; a boy named Skylar will sometimes be assumed a girl on paper.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Ailani
62%chance Ailani feels dated by 2040
Ailani is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Skylar
77%chance Skylar feels dated by 2040
Skylar is coming down from a big peak (#42 in 2015). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Ailani and Skylar in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Ailani and Skylar?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Ailani and Skylar — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ailani or Skylar — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ailani or Skylar?
- Skylar, in 2025: Skylar ranked #167 with 1,818 babies; Ailani ranked #168 with 1,807 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ailani or Skylar?
- Ailani. Over the last five years Ailani moved up 374 places; Skylar moved down 103 places.
- Which is the older name, Ailani or Skylar?
- Ailani entered the US charts in 1996; Skylar entered the US charts in 1974. On the American record, Skylar is the older name.
- How many people are named Ailani and Skylar?
- About 7,900 people named Ailani are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 86,500 people named Skylar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Ailanis or Skylars in the classroom?
- Ailani will almost certainly be the only one in school. Skylar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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