Ailish
Feminine · “noble”
Alice crossed into Irish, put on Irish spelling, and came back across unrecognizable. Ailis is what Irish does to Alice, and Ailish is what English does to Ailis — a name that has been through two spelling systems and come out sounding entirely its own.
How old is the name Ailish?
Ailish first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Ailish alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Ailish are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ailish most popular?
Ailish peaked in 2016, reaching #3923 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 6,994 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adelheidis to Ailish
The story of Ailish
Norman French brought Alice to Ireland, where Irish took it in and respelled it by Irish rules as Ailis. Irish marks a consonant as broad or slender by the vowel beside it, and a slender s — an s next to i or e — is said sh. So the written s in Ailis says sh, exactly as it does in Sean and Sinead. When the name came back into English, English readers had no way of knowing that, so the spelling was rebuilt with the sh written out. Eilis and Eilish look like twins of it and are not: those are the Irish forms of Elizabeth, and they arrive from somewhere else entirely.
Meaning
noble, from the Germanic adal
Ailish is the anglicized spelling of Irish Ailis, which is Alice. Alice runs back through Old French Aalis to Adelais, a short form of Adelheidis, built on the Germanic adal, noble. The meaning belongs to the German root at the far end of the chain, not to anything Irish.
How the name formed
- Adelheidis
- Aalis
- Alice
- Ailis
- Ailish
Related forms: Ailis · Alice · Alice · Adelheid
Pronouncing Ailish
AY-lish
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Irish Ailis is closer to AL-eesh, with the weight at the end and a longer second vowel. Both are correct; the American saying has moved the stress forward.
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 201638 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3923reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Ailish in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ailis in Irish — same name
- Alice in English — same name
- Alice in French — same name
- Adelheid in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Massachusetts, California.
Ailishs among us
people named Ailish are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Ailish
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Chessa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ailish's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chessa climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chessa's path sketches the road Ailish is walking now.
Ailish 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
Ailish beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ailish in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is Alice, so the meaning and the history are fully documented.
- Two syllables, and the spelling tells an English reader how to say it.
- Rare in American records without being invented.
- Eilish is now the better-known spelling of a similar-sounding name, and it is the one people will reach for first.
- It does not inherit Alice's short forms: Allie and Ally do not sit on this sound.
- In Ireland the stress falls at the other end, so an Irish relative may say it differently.
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What they receive
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Ailish
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ailishs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Ailish are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ailish in 2025?
- Ailish ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ailish?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Ailish — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ailish with classmates?
- Ailish will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ailish
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ailish? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ailish and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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