Ala
Feminine
Ala is given to both — 801 girls and 142 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Ala is a three-letter name from a decade full of them. American records for the 1880s are dense with Ada, Ida, Ola, Eva, Etta and Ala — short, vowel-framed names that were complete in themselves rather than shortened from anything. Ala stood inside the top thirteen hundred in 1889, and it has more than one possible parent.
How old is the name Ala?
Ala first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Ala alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 600 people named Ala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ala most popular?
Ala peaked in 1889, reaching #1279 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,443 places below that high. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Ala
The short names of the 1880s deserve more attention than they get, because they show a naming culture doing something it stopped doing later. Ada, Ida, Ola, Ala, Eva, Ina, Ora: two or three letters, one consonant, a vowel at each end. Some were inherited, some were clipped from longer names, and a great many were simply made — a mother reaching for a shape rather than a source. That is easy to do in a culture where names are read aloud far more often than they are written, and where the household version of a name has more standing than the baptismal one. By 1920 the fashion had reversed and formal names were expected on documents; the short names dropped out and returned only as nicknames. Ala belongs to that earlier world, where the shortest possible name was a complete one.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Several routes are possible and none is documented for the American bearers. Ala is a standard Polish pet form of Alicja and Aleksandra, and Polish migration to America was substantial in this period. It may equally be a clipping of Alma, Alice or Alberta, which is how most of the short nineteenth-century names were made. Arabic Alaa, 'nobility, excellence', is a genuine and separate name that shares the spelling. On a birth certificate from 1889 the spelling alone does not tell you which.
Pronouncing Ala
AH-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with open a vowels. An English reader may produce AY-luh instead, giving the first a its English name; both are heard, and the open-vowel version is the one used in Polish and Arabic.
Nicknames for Ala
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 201724 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1279reached in 1889
- Change vs 2023
- +50.0%21 in 2025, from 14
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.
Ala in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ala in Polish — same name
- Alaa in Arabic — related form
- Ala in Italian — same name
Alas among us
people named Ala are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Ala
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ala
- #5722
- Ala on the 2025 chart
- #880
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ala went to 21 girls in 2025, but Alaa, Aalaa and Alla are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 80, which makes it the 880th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,842 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 20,091 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Ala 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
Fashion outlook
Ala 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
Ala beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ala in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, universally spellable, and impossible to abbreviate further.
- It is readable in Polish, Arabic, Italian and English without change.
- It has a documented American history in the nineteenth century, so it is not a modern invention.
- Two vowel readings circulate, AH-lah and AY-luh.
- It is very close to Ava, Ada, Alma and Alba, and will be misheard constantly.
- There is no single documented meaning, because the name has several possible parents.
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Ala
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alas 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 Ala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ala?
- Ala is one of 4 recorded spellings. Alaa is the more common one — 49 births in 2025 against 21 for Ala.
- How popular is the name Ala in 2025?
- Ala ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ala?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Ala — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ala with classmates?
- Ala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ala
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ala? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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