Alisha
Feminine · “Noble”
Alisha is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 56,996 girls against 131 boys since 1880.
Alisha is the English ear's own spelling of a sound that has been in circulation for a very long time — the soft, three-beat uh-LEE-shuh that also carries Alicia and, further back, Alice. It arrived on American records in the middle of the last century and has never left them, which is a quieter kind of achievement than a hit.
How old is the name Alisha?
Alisha first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Alisha alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 55,500 people named Alisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alisha most popular?
Alisha peaked in 1987, reaching #118 nationally. Today it ranks #1229, 1,111 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Alisha
The story of Alisha
The oldest layer is Germanic: Adalheidis, built from words for noble and kind or sort, which became Adelheid and Adelaide. Old French speakers wore it down to Adelais and then Aalis, and English took that as Alice, one of the most enduring women's names in the language. Latinized back into Alicia, it picked up the ending that gives the modern uh-LEE-shuh sound, and American spelling did the rest — Alisha writes that sound plainly, without asking anyone to guess at the c. Alongside all of this, Alisha has its own life in South Asia and in Muslim naming, where it stands on its own rather than as a variant of anything.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Noble" — by way of Alice and Alicia
Read as a respelling of Alicia, it belongs to the Alice family: Old French Aalis, shortened from Adelais, from Germanic Adalheidis, "noble sort, noble kind." But Alisha is also used independently in South Asia and in Muslim families, where it is treated as its own name and often grouped with Aisha (Arabic, "living, alive"). Two roads genuinely meet at this spelling, and which one a family means is a matter of the family.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Adelaide
- Alice
- Alicia
- Alisha
Related forms: Alicia · Alice · Alisa · Alicja · Alíz · Adelheid
Pronouncing Alisha
uh-LEE-shuh
Stress on the middle syllable. A minority say uh-LISH-uh, the same split that follows Alicia, so it is worth stating once when you introduce her.
Nicknames for Alisha
High
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
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 19892,437 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #118reached in 1987
- Change vs 2023
- −4.7%183 in 2025, from 192
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.
Alisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alicia in Spanish — related form
- Alice in English, French — same name
- Alisa in Russian — related form
- Alicja in Polish — related form
- Alíz in Hungarian — related form
- Adelheid in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Florida, California.
Alishas among us
people named Alisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,783 born in 2025 was named Alisha
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alisha
- #1229
- Alisha on the 2025 chart
- #729
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alisha went to 183 girls in 2025, but Alysha and Alishah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 233, which makes it the 729th most-given girls’ name of the year — 500 places above the chart.
- Alisha183
- Alysha44
- Alishah6
About 1 girl in 6,898 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,783 for Alisha 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 Ramona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ramona climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ramona's path sketches the road Alisha is walking now.
Alisha 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 Alisha is headed
Alisha should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Alisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sound is already familiar to American ears through Alicia and Alice, so no one has to be taught how to say it.
- Spelled the way it sounds — no silent letters and no c doing unexpected work.
- Ali is a ready-made short form with a long independent life of its own.
- Sits inside a name family used across English, Spanish, Russian, Polish and German, so relatives abroad will recognize it.
- Present on American records for generations without ever becoming a classroom crowd.
- Alicia, Alysha, Aleesha and Alesha all exist, so expect a lifetime of spelling it out. The upside is that Alisha is the most phonetic of the set.
- Two pronunciations circulate, uh-LEE-shuh and uh-LISH-uh. Choosing one and saying it clearly usually settles the matter early.
- The name is strongly represented among adults now in their thirties and forties, so it may read as a contemporary's name to some people rather than a baby's — which is also why it is uncrowded for a child today.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Alisha
Feminine · #1229 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alishas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 55,500 people named Alisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alisha?
- Alisha is the most-used spelling in US records — 183 of the 233 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Alysha and Alishah.
- How popular is the name Alisha in 2025?
- Alisha ranks #1229 among US girl names in 2025, with 183 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alisha?
- About 1 in every 8,783 US girls born in 2025 was named Alisha — 183 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alisha with classmates?
- Alisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mariela#1229 · Ehlani#1229 · Xitlali#1229 · Anaia#1229 · May#1229 · Zhamira#1225 · Shay#1225 · Aiyana#1225
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alisha and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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