Aelin
Feminine
Aelin was invented for a fantasy series published from 2012, built to look Irish without descending from anything Irish.
How old is the name Aelin?
Aelin first appears in US birth records in 2016 — 9 years ago. Aelin is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Aelins are still in diapers. About 400 people named Aelin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aelin most popular?
Aelin peaked in 2025, reaching #1855 nationally. Today it ranks #1855, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Aelin
Our story of Aelin is a story of a name built to feel older than it is. The ae opening and the -lin ending are both familiar from genuine Celtic names, which is what makes the invention work; readers meeting it assume a language behind it. There is not one. The series began in 2012, and the American registers pick the name up within a few years. That is the honest whole of it, and it is a real history even if it is a short one.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No etymology outside the fiction. Sarah J. Maas coined the name for the Throne of Glass series, and the books give it a meaning within their own invented setting. It resembles the Irish aeling and the Welsh Aeron by sound but descends from neither. Honest sources record it as an invention.
Pronouncing Aelin
AY-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. The ae is said as a plain long a.
Nicknames for Aelin
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
- 2016
- Most girls named
- 2025107 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1855reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +35.4%107 in 2025, from 79
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.
Aelin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aelyn in English — spelling variant
- Aylin in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Michigan, Minnesota.
Aelins among us
people named Aelin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,021 born in 2025 was named Aelin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aelin
- #1855
- Aelin on the 2025 chart
- #816
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aelin went to 107 girls in 2025, but Aelyn and Aelynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 144, which makes it the 816th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,039 places above the chart.
- Aelin107
- Aelyn23
- Aelynn14
About 1 girl in 11,162 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,021 for Aelin 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 Jamison test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aelin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamison climbed just as high around 2005, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamison's path sketches the road Aelin is walking now.
Aelin 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aelin is headed
Aelin looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 59% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Aelin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aelin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Its invention is unusually well documented — one author, one series, one decade.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk once the ae is explained.
- Lin is available as a short form with real use.
- There is no meaning; the name is an invention.
- The Turkish Aylin is a genuine name and is close enough to be confused.
- The ae will need dictating every time.
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Aelin
Feminine · #1855 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aelins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Aelin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aelin?
- Aelin is the most-used spelling in US records — 107 of the 144 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Aelyn and Aelynn.
- How popular is the name Aelin in 2025?
- Aelin ranks #1855 among US girl names in 2025, with 107 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aelin?
- About 1 in every 15,021 US girls born in 2025 was named Aelin — 107 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aelin with classmates?
- Aelin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aelin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stormie#1855 · Jireh#1855 · Paityn#1855 · Beckett#1855 · Pippa#1855 · Daria#1855 · Yasmina#1855 · Jazlin#1855
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aelin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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