Alinah
Feminine · “Noble" in the Germanic line”
Alinah is a name that exists in two places at once. Alina is genuine and old — Slavic, Germanic and Arabic traditions all have it, by separate routes — and the added h is often an American gesture. But the h is not always decorative: in Arabic transliteration a final h regularly marks the feminine ending, which means the same spelling is a considered choice in one context and a flourish in another.
How old is the name Alinah?
Alinah first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Alinah is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Alinah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alinah most popular?
Alinah peaked in 2015, reaching #3254 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,584 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adelina to Alinah
The story of Alinah
Adelina, Adeline and Aline are the Germanic branch, carried through French into English. The Slavic branch is separate: Alina has been a standard name in Poland, Russia, Romania and Ukraine for over a century, usually understood as its own name rather than a shortening. The Arabic branch is separate again. American usage draws on all three without distinguishing them, and the terminal h is the marker that most often signals the Arabic or the decorative reading rather than the Slavic one. The 2015 peak sits inside the general rise of -ah endings across American girls' naming.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Noble" in the Germanic line, "tender" in the Arabic
Three unrelated derivations are all defensible. Germanic Alina is a short form of Adelina, from adal, "noble". Arabic ʿalīna relates to a root meaning gentle or tender, and Alia or Aliyah relates to a root meaning high or exalted. Slavic Alina is generally a short form of Yekaterina or Angelina. The spellings converge; the meanings do not.
How the name formed
- Adelina
- Aline
- Alina
- Alinah
Related forms: Alina · علينة (ʿAlina) · Alina · Adelina
Pronouncing Alinah
ah-LEE-nah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle and a long EE. The final h is silent in English. Some American speakers say uh-LYE-nuh with a long I in the middle, which is a different name to Slavic and Arabic ears.
Nicknames for Alinah
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
- 201550 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3254reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −15.8%16 in 2025, from 19
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.
Alinah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alina in Polish — same name
- علينة (ʿAlina) in Arabic — related form
- Alina in Romanian — same name
- Adelina in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Alinahs among us
people named Alinah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Alinah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alinah
- #6838
- Alinah on the 2025 chart
- #124
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alinah went to 16 girls in 2025, but Alina, Alyna and Alinna and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 2,393, which makes it the 124th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,714 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 672 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Alinah 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 Anthea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alinah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anthea climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anthea's path sketches the road Alinah is walking now.
Alinah 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
Alinah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alinah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a real name in Polish, Russian, Romanian, German and Arabic, which is unusually broad reach.
- Lina and Nina are both established, standalone short forms.
- The sound is soft throughout with no consonant clusters.
- The final h will be dropped by other people at least half the time.
- The middle vowel has two competing English readings, EE and long I.
- Alina, Aleena, Alena and Alinah are all in use and are not always the same name.
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What they receive
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Alinah
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alinahs 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 Alinah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alinah?
- Alinah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Alina is the more common one — 2,204 births in 2025 against 16 for Alinah.
- How popular is the name Alinah in 2025?
- Alinah ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alinah?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Alinah — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alinah with classmates?
- Alinah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alinah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alinah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alinah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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