Aliyah
Feminine · “High”
Aliyah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 49,011 girls against 43 boys since 1880.
Aliyah sits on a root that two great Semitic languages share: in Arabic the sense of height and exaltation, in Hebrew the act of going up. Both traditions have used it for centuries, and the spelling with -yah is the one that carries the Hebrew word most visibly. Three open syllables, no hard consonant anywhere in it — a name that is easy to say the first time you see it.
How old is the name Aliyah?
Aliyah first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Aliyah alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 48,500 people named Aliyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aliyah most popular?
Aliyah peaked in 2011, reaching #133 nationally. Today it ranks #263, 130 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Aliyah appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From ʿAlī to Aliyah
The story of Aliyah
The Arabic ʿĀliya has been in use as a woman's name across the Arabic-speaking world for well over a thousand years, the feminine counterpart of ʿĀlī. The Hebrew aliyah comes from the same ancient Semitic root for rising and appears in Jewish practice as an ordinary, much-used noun long before it was ever a given name. In English the name arrived mainly through Arabic-speaking and African American families, and the American singer Aaliyah — using the doubled-a spelling — brought the whole family of spellings into general view in the 1990s. Aliyah is now one of several English spellings competing for the same sound, and the one that looks most like the Hebrew word.
Meaning
High, exalted; in the Hebrew reading, ascent or going up
The sense is agreed on; the language of origin depends on which road you follow. Arabic ʿĀliya is the feminine of ʿĀlī, 'high, lofty'. Hebrew aliyah is a noun, 'ascent' — used both for being called up to read the Torah and for immigration to Israel. The two roots are cognate, which is why the meanings converge rather than compete.
How the name formed
- ʿAlī
- ʿĀliya
- Aaliyah
- Aliyah
Related forms: عالية (ʿĀliya) · עֲלִיָּה (Aliya) · Aliye · Aliyeh · Aliya · Aaliyah
Pronouncing Aliyah
ah-LEE-ah
Three syllables, stress in the middle; many speakers add a light y-glide, ah-LEE-yah. A first-syllable version, AH-lee-ah, is also heard in Arabic-speaking families.
Nicknames for Aliyah
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 20112,301 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #133reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −9.6%1,188 in 2025, from 1,314
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.
Aliyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عالية (ʿĀliya) in Arabic — transliteration
- עֲלִיָּה (Aliya) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Aliye in Turkish — related form
- Aliyeh in Persian — related form
- Aliya in Kazakh/Tatar — spelling variant
- Aaliyah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Aliyahs among us
people named Aliyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,353 born in 2025 was named Aliyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aliyah
- #263
- Aliyah on the 2025 chart
- #40
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aliyah went to 1,188 girls in 2025, but Aaliyah, Alia and Aliya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 16 spellings went to 5,166, which makes it the 40th most-given girls’ name of the year — 223 places above the chart.
and 8 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 311 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,353 for Aliyah 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 Miriam test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aliyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Miriam climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Miriam's path sketches the road Aliyah is walking now.
Aliyah 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 Aliyah is headed
Aliyah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Aliyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aliyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly on first sight for most English speakers — the spelling and the sound line up.
- Recognized across Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian and Central Asian naming traditions, so it travels without translation.
- Has ready-made short forms in Ali, Lia and Liyah, all already in use.
- Rests on a documented root with an agreed meaning, rather than a guessed one.
- The sound comes in many spellings — Aaliyah, Aliya, Alia, Aleah, Aliyah — so she will likely be spelling it aloud for life, and mail will arrive in every variant.
- Aliyah is also an ordinary noun in Jewish practice and Israeli immigration law. Most people will simply hear a name, but the double meaning is worth knowing in advance.
- It sits close to Alia, Alaya, Aliana and Amelia in sound, so mishearings are common in classrooms and on the phone.
- It has stepped back a little from its busiest stretch, which in practice means a name people know how to say without there being a second one in the room.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Aliyah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Aliyah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Aliyah
Feminine · #263 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aliyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 48,500 people named Aliyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aliyah?
- Aliyah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Aaliyah is the more common one — 2,607 births in 2025 against 1,188 for Aliyah.
- How popular is the name Aliyah in 2025?
- Aliyah ranks #263 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,188 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aliyah?
- About 1 in every 1,353 US girls born in 2025 was named Aliyah — 1,188 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aliyah with classmates?
- Aliyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aliyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Norah#262 · Ophelia#264 · Talia#265 · Aspen#266 · Mariana#260 · Adalyn#260 · Leila#259 · Elaina#267
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aliyah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aliyah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle