Head to head · Girls' names
Alice vs Ayla
#65 vs #77 in 2025
Alice is a whisker ahead (#65 vs #77 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Alice is holding its place on the charts, Ayla is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Ayla 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, Alice leads 5 measures of 6; Ayla 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
- 1880s: Alice #11, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1890s: Alice #14, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1900s: Alice #11, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1910s: Alice #12, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1920s: Alice #16, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1930s: Alice #25, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1940s: Alice #42, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1950s: Alice #86, Ayla — — Alice higher
- 1960s: Alice #150, Ayla #5891 — Alice higher
- 1970s: Alice #241, Ayla #9871 — Alice higher
- 1980s: Alice #328, Ayla #2759 — Alice higher
- 1990s: Alice #404, Ayla #839 — Alice higher
- 2000s: Alice #387, Ayla #607 — Alice higher
- 2010s: Alice #102, Ayla #262 — Alice higher
- 2020s: Alice #67, Ayla #98 — Alice higher
Alice stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Alice | Ayla |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #11 | — |
| 1890s | #14 | — |
| 1900s | #11 | — |
| 1910s | #12 | — |
| 1920s | #16 | — |
| 1930s | #25 | — |
| 1940s | #42 | — |
| 1950s | #86 | — |
| 1960s | #150 | #5891 |
| 1970s | #241 | #9871 |
| 1980s | #328 | #2759 |
| 1990s | #404 | #839 |
| 2000s | #387 | #607 |
| 2010s | #102 | #262 |
| 2020s | #67 | #98 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Alice
- France#10
- Canada#12
- England & Wales#49
- Scotland#52
Ayla
- Scotland#41
- Canada#44
- England & Wales#47
- France#71
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Alice
of a noble kind
Both Germanic elements are well attested and the chain of forms from the compound to the modern name is documented at every stage. What is gone is any way of seeing that from the name as it now stands.
Adalheidis → Adelais → Aalis → Alice
How it traveled
One woman carrying it changed what a short story could be asked to do. She wrote almost nothing but stories across a working life of half a century, set nearly all of them in small towns in southwestern Ontario, and built them so that a paragraph could contain forty years and a marriage could turn on a sentence somebody almost said.
Ayla
Turkish: 'moonlight' or 'halo around the moon'. Hebrew: 'doe' or 'oak', through Ayala.
The Turkish reading is straightforward: *ay* means moon, and Ayla is glossed as moonlight or the ring of light around the moon. Independently, Ayla is used in Hebrew as a variant of Ayala, tied to words for a female deer and for the oak or terebinth tree. Neither reading borrowed from the other; the same spelling simply arrived twice.
ay (Turkish: moon) → Ayla
How it traveled
The Turkish Ayla is the older documented thread — a name formed from *ay*, moon, and in ordinary use in Turkey and Azerbaijani-speaking areas well before it appeared in American records. The Hebrew line runs separately, where Ayla stands as a shorter form of Ayala.
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
Alice
AL-iss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. French says it in two as well, with the weight at the back, which English speakers rarely attempt.
- Ali — The front alone; short, current and completely unisex.
- Elsie — Reached by sound from the ending; a standing name in its own right.
- Allie — An affectionate ending; warm and firmly informal.
Ayla
AY-lah
The usual American pronunciation is AY-lah, with the first syllable like the letter A. In Turkish, *ay* sounds like the English word 'eye', so a Turkish speaker will say something closer to eye-LAH. Both are correct in their own setting, and families who use the name across languages often live with both.
Who has carried each name
Alice
Alice Munro (b. 1931) — Nobel laureate, master of the short story
Alice Walker (b. 1944) — The Color Purple author, first Black woman to win the fiction Pulitzer
Alice Paul (b. 1885) — Suffragist who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment
Ayla
No documented entry for Ayla yet.
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 Alice if you want…
- a name most people already know#65 in 2025, 3,547 babies that year
- a name holding steadyAlice is holding its place on the charts
- plenty of nickname options3 recorded short forms — Ali, Elsie and Allie
- a long American recordAlice was already in use when US records began in 1880
Choose Ayla if you want…
- a name fewer children share#77 in 2025 — ayla will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 54 places on the charts in five years
- a name that stays wholeno recorded short form for Ayla
- a newer arrivalAyla entered the US charts in 1963
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
Alice
Strengths
- It is recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- It has been in continuous use since the medieval period without interruption.
- The spelling is short, unambiguous and never needs repeating.
To consider
- It is currently fashionable again, so a child may not be the only one.
- The meaning is entirely invisible without explanation.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Ayla
Strengths
- Short, phonetic and easy to spell from hearing it once — four letters, no silent letters, no doubled consonants.
- Works in Turkish, Hebrew and English without translation or adjustment, which matters in families that span more than one of them.
- Already recognized in several other countries, including Scotland, Canada, England and Wales, and France.
To consider
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood with Isla, Layla, Lyla and Ayda. Expect a certain amount of gentle correcting, spoken and written.
- The AY-lah and eye-LAH pronunciations both have real claim to the name, so she may hear it two ways depending on who is speaking.
- The name is climbing rather than settling, so it will likely be better known by the time she starts school than it is now — familiar, though still not one of the names in every classroom.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Alice
12%chance Alice feels dated by 2040
Alice has held the top-100 across 9 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
Ayla
55%chance Ayla feels dated by 2040
Ayla 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.
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 Alice and Ayla 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 Alice and Ayla?
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 than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- all guides
Every list here names both Alice and Ayla — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Alice or Ayla — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Alice or Ayla?
- Alice, in 2025: Alice ranked #65 with 3,547 babies; Ayla ranked #77 with 3,149 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Alice or Ayla?
- Ayla. Over the last five years Alice moved up 11 places; Ayla moved up 54 places.
- Which is the older name, Alice or Ayla?
- Alice was already in use when US records began in 1880; Ayla entered the US charts in 1963. On the American record, Alice is the older name.
- How many people are named Alice and Ayla?
- About 220,000 people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 38,000 people named Ayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Alices or Aylas in the classroom?
- Alice will almost certainly be the only one in school. Ayla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Alice, Ayla and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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