Aaliya
Feminine · “high”
Aaliya is an Arabic word for high or exalted — the feminine of a word that also gives the name Ali. It is used across the Muslim world and, in a slightly different spelling, right across America.
How old is the name Aaliya?
Aaliya first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Aaliya alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,600 people named Aaliya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aaliya most popular?
Aaliya peaked in 2013, reaching #2187 nationally. Today it ranks #3389, 1,202 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Where it comes from
From aliya to Aaliya
The story of Aaliya
The root behind the name is one of the most productive in Arabic, giving words for height, ascent and superiority. Aliya has been a women's name across the Arab world and South Asia for a very long time. It entered American records in quantity in the 1990s, largely in the doubled-a spelling, and the doubled vowel is a South Asian convention for marking length that American usage adopted without the reason for it.
Meaning
high, exalted, sublime
From an Arabic root meaning to be high or elevated; the masculine Ali is one of the divine names as well as a very widely borne personal name, and aliya is its feminine.
How the name formed
- aliya
- Aaliya
Related forms: Aliyah · Aliye · Aaliya · Aliyah
Pronouncing Aaliya
ah-LEE-yah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Aaliya
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 201085 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2187reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −11.8%45 in 2025, from 51
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aaliya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aliyah in Arabic — spelling variant
- Aliye in Turkish — same name
- Aaliya in Urdu — same name
- Aliyah in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Aaliyas among us
people named Aaliya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 35,717 born in 2025 was named Aaliya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aaliya
- #3389
- Aaliya on the 2025 chart
- #40
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aaliya went to 45 girls in 2025, but Aaliyah, Aliyah and Alia and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 16 spellings went to 5,166, which makes it the 40th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,349 places above the chart.
and 8 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 311 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 35,717 for Aaliya itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lasha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aaliya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lasha climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lasha's path sketches the road Aaliya is walking now.
Aaliya sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aaliya is headed
Aaliya should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aaliya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aaliya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a documented record across the whole Muslim world.
- Ali and Liya are both usable short forms with their own lives.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in a great many languages.
- Aaliyah with a final h is far more written in America and will be assumed.
- The doubled a puzzles American forms, which will try to remove it.
- Aliya, Aaliya, Aaliyah and Aliyah are four live spellings of one name.
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What they receive
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Aaliya
Feminine · #3389 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aaliyas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Aaliya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aaliya?
- Aaliya is one of 8 recorded spellings. Aaliyah is the more common one — 2,607 births in 2025 against 45 for Aaliya.
- How popular is the name Aaliya in 2025?
- Aaliya ranks #3389 among US girl names in 2025, with 45 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aaliya?
- About 1 in every 35,717 US girls born in 2025 was named Aaliya — 45 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aaliya with classmates?
- Aaliya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aaliya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Katheryn#3389 · Posey#3389 · Ronni#3389 · Gittel#3389 · Betsabe#3389 · Germany#3389 · Jaslene#3389 · Lovina#3389
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aaliya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aaliya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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