Aryeh
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “Lion”
Aryeh is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,495 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Aryeh is the Hebrew word for lion, used as a name since biblical times and still handed down in Jewish families today. In Eastern Europe it was often doubled with the Yiddish Leib, which means lion too — Aryeh Leib, the same animal twice, once in each language. Said aloud it opens wide and closes soft: two syllables, no hard edges.
How old is the name Aryeh?
Aryeh first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Aryeh alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 3,400 people named Aryeh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aryeh most popular?
Aryeh peaked in 2025, reaching #1281 nationally. Today it ranks #1281, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From אַרְיֵה (Hebrew aryeh) to Aryeh
The story of Aryeh
Aryeh is Hebrew, and it is not a poetic coinage — it is the plain noun for lion, used throughout the Hebrew Bible, where Jacob's blessing likens the tribe of Judah to a lion. It appears as a personal name in the book of Kings, and became a steady given name in Jewish communities, carried alongside the lion imagery attached to Judah and to Jerusalem. Among Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe it was regularly paired with Leib, the Yiddish word for lion, producing the classic double name Aryeh Leib borne by generations of rabbis. Modern Hebrew keeps the word and the name alike, and in the United States the name clusters in the regions with the largest Orthodox Jewish populations.
Meaning
Lion
From Hebrew אַרְיֵה (aryeh), the ordinary word for lion in the Hebrew Bible.
How the name formed
- אַרְיֵהHebrew aryeh
- Arieh
- Aryeh
Related forms: אַרְיֵה · Arieh · Arie · Ari · Leib
Pronouncing Aryeh
AR-yeh
Two syllables. Israeli speakers often place the stress on the second: ar-YEH. The final syllable rhymes with the 'yeh' in 'yes', not with 'yay'.
Nicknames for Aryeh
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
- 1954
- Most boys named
- 2025153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1281reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +2.0%153 in 2025, from 150
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.
Aryeh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אַרְיֵה in Hebrew — transliteration
- Arieh in English — spelling variant
- Arie in English — spelling variant
- Ari in Hebrew — related form
- Leib in Yiddish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New Jersey, New York, California.
Aryehs among us
people named Aryeh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,164 born in 2025 was named Aryeh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aryeh
- #1281
- Aryeh on the 2025 chart
- #689
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aryeh went to 153 boys in 2025, but Arie, Arye and Arieh are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 245, which makes it the 689th most-given boys’ name of the year — 592 places above the chart.
- Aryeh153
- Arie63
- Arye21
- Arieh8
About 1 boy in 6,972 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,164 for Aryeh 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 Doy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aryeh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Doy climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Doy's path sketches the road Aryeh is walking now.
Aryeh 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 Aryeh is headed
Aryeh 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.
Aryeh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aryeh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is not in doubt: it is the standard Hebrew word for lion, still in daily use in the language.
- Comes with a ready-made short form, Ari, which works on its own and is widely recognized in English.
- A documented record going back to the Hebrew Bible, with unbroken Jewish use since.
- Rare enough in American schools that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Three spellings circulate in English — Aryeh, Arieh, Arie — so expect to spell it out and to see the others on mail and forms.
- The -yeh ending is unfamiliar to many American ears; teachers and strangers will often try 'ar-YAY' or 'AIR-ee' before they get it right.
- Ari is short, easy and already popular on its own, and may become what most people actually call him.
- The name reads as clearly Hebrew and Jewish wherever it goes — an asset if that is the point, worth knowing either way.
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Aryeh
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #1281 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aryehs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Aryeh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aryeh?
- Aryeh is the most-used spelling in US records — 153 of the 245 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Arie, Arye and Arieh.
- How popular is the name Aryeh in 2025?
- Aryeh ranks #1281 among US boy names in 2025, with 153 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aryeh?
- About 1 in every 11,164 US boys born in 2025 was named Aryeh — 153 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aryeh with classmates?
- Aryeh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aryeh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ronen#1281 · Reginald#1281 · Yakov#1281 · Kolten#1281 · Jadon#1281 · Octavio#1276 · Percy#1276 · Andreas#1276
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aryeh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aryeh and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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