Aishah
Feminine · “Arabic "living”
Aishah is one of the most historically weighted names in the Islamic world. ʿĀʾishah bint Abi Bakr was the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, a major transmitter of hadith, and a figure of real political consequence in the first Muslim civil war. The name has been in continuous use for fourteen centuries, and the terminal h in this spelling is not decoration — it is the tā marbūṭa.
How old is the name Aishah?
Aishah first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Aishah alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 1,300 people named Aishah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aishah most popular?
Aishah peaked in 1981, reaching #3066 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,772 places below that high. See the whole 1981 chart.
Where it comes from
From عائشة (ʿĀʾishah) to Aishah
The story of Aishah
The name's spread follows Islam itself: it is common in Arabic-speaking countries, across South Asia as Ayesha, in West Africa as Aisha and Aissatou, in Turkey as Ayşe, in Indonesia as Aisyah and in the Balkans as Ajša. Each region transliterates it into its own alphabet, which is why a single Arabic word appears in the American data under at least eight spellings. Aishah with the final h is the transliteration that preserves the Arabic feminine ending most faithfully, and it is favored where the written form matters. The 1981 American peak reflects both Muslim immigration and the wider adoption of the name in African American families from the 1970s.
Meaning
Arabic "living, alive, thriving"
From the Arabic root ʿ-y-sh, which concerns life and living; ʿāʾishah is the active participle in the feminine, "she who lives" or "living one". The same root gives maʿīshah, livelihood. The etymology is not disputed. The initial consonant is ʿayn, a pharyngeal sound English has no equivalent for, which is why the transliteration begins with a bare A.
How the name formed
- عائشةʿĀʾishah
- Aishah
Related forms: عائشة · Ayşe · Ayesha · Aisyah · Ajša · Aisha
Pronouncing Aishah
AH-ee-shah
Arabic gives roughly AA-ee-shah, three syllables, with a glottal element in the middle that English collapses. American speakers usually say eye-EE-shah or AY-shah; the two-syllable AY-shah is the most common and the furthest from the original. The final h is voiced in Arabic and silent in English.
Nicknames for Aishah
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 200343 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3066reached in 1981
- Change vs 2024
- +23.1%16 in 2025, from 13
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.
Aishah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عائشة in Arabic — same name
- Ayşe in Turkish — same name
- Ayesha in Urdu — transliteration
- Aisyah in Indonesian — transliteration
- Ajša in Bosnian — same name
- Aisha in Hausa — same name
Aishahs among us
people named Aishah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Aishah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aishah
- #6838
- Aishah on the 2025 chart
- #298
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aishah went to 16 girls in 2025, but Aisha, Aysha and Ayisha are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,054, which makes it the 298th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,540 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,525 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Aishah 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 Hollye test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aishah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hollye climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hollye's path sketches the road Aishah is walking now.
Aishah 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
Aishah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aishah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has one of the longest continuous documented histories of any name in use.
- It is recognized across the Arab world, South Asia, West Africa, Turkey and Southeast Asia.
- The meaning — living, thriving — is settled and unambiguous.
- At least eight transliterations compete, and none is dominant in America.
- The Arabic pronunciation is not reproducible in English, so a compromise has to be chosen.
- The name carries a strong and specific religious association.
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What they receive
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Aishah
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aishahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Aishah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aishah?
- Aishah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Aisha is the more common one — 910 births in 2025 against 16 for Aishah.
- How popular is the name Aishah in 2025?
- Aishah ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aishah?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Aishah — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aishah with classmates?
- Aishah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aishah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aishah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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