Alaijah
Feminine · “Hebrew Eliyahu”
Alaijah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 735 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Elijah's name is an argument. My God is Yah, it says, and the prophet who carried it spent his career insisting on exactly that against the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. The name states the position the story is about, which is unusual even among Hebrew names that state things.
How old is the name Alaijah?
Alaijah first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Alaijah alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 700 people named Alaijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alaijah most popular?
Alaijah peaked in 2004, reaching #3391 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,971 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eliyahu to Alaijah
The story of Alaijah
The Carmel narrative is the centerpiece. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest: two altars, two bulls, no fire, and whichever god answers is God. The Baal prophets call all day without result, and Elijah taunts them, suggesting their god may be asleep or traveling. Then he soaks his own altar with water and it burns. The scene is one of the sharpest polemics in the Hebrew Bible and the prophet's own name states its conclusion in advance. Names of that kind are common in the period: Joel is Yah is God, the same claim with the elements reversed; Micaiah is who is like Yah. All of them belong to a period of contest between the worship of Yahweh and of other gods, and the naming is part of the argument rather than a background to it.
Meaning
Hebrew Eliyahu, my God is Yah
From Hebrew eli, my God, and yahu, a form of the divine name: my God is Yah. Alaijah is an American formation blending Elijah with the Aaliyah family, and the spelling with ai and a terminal h belongs to the latter. The prophet's story occupies several chapters of Kings and he is expected to return in Jewish tradition, which is why a cup is set for him at Passover. It peaks in 2004.
How the name formed
- Eliyahu
- Elijah
- Alaijah
Related forms: Elijah · Eliyahu · Ilyas
Pronouncing Alaijah
uh-LY-zhah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some families say ah-LY-jah with an English j, others uh-LAY-zhah. The spelling supports several readings and none has become standard.
Nicknames for Alaijah
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
- 200444 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3391reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%12 in 2025, from 16
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.
Alaijah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elijah in English — related form
- Eliyahu in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ilyas in Arabic — same name
Alaijahs among us
people named Alaijah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Alaijah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alaijah
- #8362
- Alaijah on the 2025 chart
- #937
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alaijah went to 12 girls in 2025, but Alayjah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 23, which makes it the 937th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,425 places above the chart.
- Alaijah12
- Alayjah11
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Alaijah 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 Jalysa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alaijah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jalysa climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jalysa's path sketches the road Alaijah is walking now.
Alaijah 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
Alaijah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alaijah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew meaning is settled and forceful.
- The prophet is a major figure in three traditions.
- Several natural short forms are available.
- At least three pronunciations circulate for this spelling.
- Elijah and Aaliyah are both far more common.
- It will be spelled out letter by letter for life.
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Alaijah
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alaijahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Alaijah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alaijah?
- Alaijah is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 23 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Alayjah.
- How popular is the name Alaijah in 2025?
- Alaijah ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alaijah?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Alaijah — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alaijah with classmates?
- Alaijah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alaijah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alaijah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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