Aissata
Feminine · “Alive”
Aïssata is what Aisha became in West Africa: the Arabic name traveled south with Islam across the Sahara, and Fula, Mandinka and Soninke speakers reshaped it with the -ata ending their own naming uses. It is one of the commonest women's names in Mali, Senegal and Guinea.
How old is the name Aissata?
Aissata first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Aissata is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Aissata are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aissata most popular?
Aissata peaked in 2013, reaching #4543 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 695 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ʿĀʾisha to Aissata
The story of Aissata
Aisha bint Abi Bakr was Muhammad's wife and one of the most consequential figures of early Islam, a transmitter of a great many hadith and a political actor in the first civil war; her name went wherever Islam went. Across the Sahel it took local shapes: Aïssata, Aïssatou, Aïcha, Aïchatou. The trans-Saharan trade routes carried Islam into the Mali and Songhai empires from the eleventh century, and the name has been ordinary in the region for many hundreds of years since. American records show Aissata from the 1990s, arriving with West African immigration to New York, Ohio and the Washington area, and its peak in 2013 belongs to that community's growth.
Meaning
Alive, living
From Arabic ʿĀʾisha, from ḥayya, to live — the reading is settled and means living or she who lives. Aïssata and Aïssatou are the West African forms, chiefly Fula, Mandinka and Soninke, with the -ata and -atou endings that these languages add to borrowed names. The meaning belongs to the Arabic original and traveled with it.
How the name formed
- ʿĀʾisha
- Aïssata
Related forms: عائشة · Aïssatou · Aïssata · Aisha · Aisha
Pronouncing Aissata
eye-SAH-tah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The dieresis in Aïssata marks that the a and i are said separately rather than as one sound; American records drop it, which invites the misreading AY-suh-tuh.
Nicknames for Aissata
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
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 200731 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4543reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%24 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.
Aissata in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عائشة in Arabic — related form
- Aïssatou in Fula — spelling variant
- Aïssata in Mandinka — same name
- Aisha in English — related form
- Aisha in Hausa — related form
Aissatas among us
people named Aissata are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Aissata
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 Marsia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aissata's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marsia climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marsia's path sketches the road Aissata is walking now.
Aissata 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
Aissata beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aissata in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and good, and travels with the name everywhere.
- It is instantly recognized across West Africa and the Arabic-speaking world.
- The syllables are open and contain no sound English cannot make.
- American records drop the dieresis, and without it the first two letters mislead.
- Aissata, Aissatou, Aicha and Aisha are all used in the same families.
- It is unfamiliar outside West African communities in the United States.
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Aissata
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aissatas 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 Aissata are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aissata in 2025?
- Aissata ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aissata?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Aissata — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aissata with classmates?
- Aissata will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aissata
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aissata? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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