Aleiyah
Feminine · “exalted”
Aleiyah is one of a great many American spellings for a sound that arrived from Arabic and now belongs to English too. Aaliyah, from the Arabic for exalted, became widely loved in the nineteen-nineties, and the spellings multiplied at once; the ei in this one fixes the long vowel in a way the plain i does not.
How old is the name Aleiyah?
Aleiyah first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Aleiyah is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Aleiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aleiyah most popular?
Aleiyah peaked in 2019, reaching #4072 nationally. Today it ranks #5099, 1,027 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aliya to Aleiyah
The story of Aleiyah
One name can open a whole family of spellings, and Aaliyah did: it entered American naming from Arabic, rose sharply through the nineteen-nineties, and produced Aliyah, Aleah, Aliya, Aleeyah, Aleiyah and a dozen more. The variations are not carelessness; each one was chosen so that a family's daughter would have a spelling of her own while keeping the sound everybody loved. That is how respelling has always worked in American English.
Meaningscholars disagree
exalted, high
Arabic aliya, the feminine of ali, high or exalted, is the documented source of Aaliyah. Hebrew aliyah, an ascent, is a separate word and a separate name given in Jewish families. Aleiyah is a respelling that could descend from either, and no source records it as a form in its own right.
How the name formed
- aliya
- Aaliyah
- Aleiyah
Related forms: عالية · Aaliyah · Aliyah
Pronouncing Aleiyah
ah-LEE-ah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the second held long. The ei is there to fix that vowel.
Nicknames for Aleiyah
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 201935 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4072reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +56.3%25 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.
Aleiyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عالية in Arabic — transliteration
- Aaliyah in English — spelling variant
- Aliyah in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Aleiyahs among us
people named Aleiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was named Aleiyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aleiyah
- #5099
- Aleiyah on the 2025 chart
- #421
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aleiyah went to 25 girls in 2025, but Aleia, Aleyah and Aleya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 10 spellings went to 680, which makes it the 421st most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,678 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 2,364 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 64,291 for Aleiyah 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 Brinna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aleiyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brinna climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brinna's path sketches the road Aleiyah is walking now.
Aleiyah 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 Aleiyah is headed
Aleiyah is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues. 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.
Aleiyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aleiyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Arabic meaning is documented and easy to state in one word.
- Ali and Lee are ready short forms and both are complete names.
- The ending carries well when the name is called across a room.
- At least six spellings of this sound are in common use, so it will be written back wrongly for life.
- Aaliyah is far commoner and will be assumed by people writing quickly.
- The ei is a rare vowel pair in English and will be misread as an ay sound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Aleiyah
Feminine · #5099 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aleiyahs 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 Aleiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aleiyah?
- Aleiyah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Aleia is the more common one — 279 births in 2025 against 25 for Aleiyah.
- How popular is the name Aleiyah in 2025?
- Aleiyah ranks #5099 among US girl names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aleiyah?
- About 1 in every 64,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Aleiyah — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aleiyah with classmates?
- Aleiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aleiyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janette#5099 · Loraine#5099 · Delfina#5099 · Hali#5099 · Mecca#5099 · Zoi#5099 · Afia#5099 · Emelie#5099
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aleiyah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aleiyah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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