Aisling
Feminine · “dream”
Aisling is the Irish word for a dream or vision, and it names a whole genre of Irish poetry: the aisling, in which a woman appears to the poet and turns out to be Ireland.
How old is the name Aisling?
Aisling first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Aisling alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,500 people named Aisling are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aisling most popular?
Aisling peaked in 2002, reaching #2554 nationally. Today it ranks #3780, 1,226 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Aisling
The aisling was a coded political form: under the penal laws a poet could not lament Ireland directly, so a beautiful woman appears in a vision, is asked who she is, and answers that she is Ireland waiting for her rightful king. Hundreds survive. The word became a personal name in twentieth-century Ireland with the revival of Irish naming and is now well used there and in American records with Irish families.
Meaning
dream, vision
From Irish aisling, a dream or a vision; the word names a specific poetic form of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in which a spéirbhean, a sky-woman, appears to the poet and laments the state of the country.
Pronouncing Aisling
ASH-ling
Two syllables, first stressed; the si is a sh sound in Irish. Some regions say ASH-leen.
Nicknames for Aisling
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 200261 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2554reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- +30.0%39 in 2025, from 30
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.
Aisling in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aisling in Irish — same name
- Ashling in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Massachusetts, California.
Aislings among us
people named Aisling are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 41,212 born in 2025 was named Aisling
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 Jodeen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aisling's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jodeen climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jodeen's path sketches the road Aisling is walking now.
Aisling 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 Aisling is headed
Aisling should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. 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.
Aisling beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aisling 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 in a living language with a genuinely remarkable literary form behind it.
- Ash is available immediately as an ordinary English short form.
- Very well used in Ireland, so it has a real community that knows it exactly.
- English readers say the s and the l separately and get it wrong.
- Aisling, Ashling and Aislinn are all in use and only the first is standard Irish.
- Outside Ireland it needs spelling and explaining every time.
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What they receive
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Aisling
Feminine · #3780 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aislings are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Aisling are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aisling in 2025?
- Aisling ranks #3780 among US girl names in 2025, with 39 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aisling?
- About 1 in every 41,212 US girls born in 2025 was named Aisling — 39 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aisling with classmates?
- Aisling will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aisling
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kimberlyn#3780 · Jonah#3780 · Aine#3780 · Jakayla#3780 · Shriya#3780 · Analeigh#3780 · Daliyah#3780 · Jamia#3780
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aisling? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aisling and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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