Ayelet
Feminine · “doe”
Ayelet is the Hebrew word for a doe, and it comes into use through a phrase rather than a word: ayelet hashachar, the doe of the dawn, which is the heading of a psalm and the Hebrew name for the morning star.
How old is the name Ayelet?
Ayelet first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Ayelet alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,000 people named Ayelet are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ayelet most popular?
Ayelet peaked in 2025, reaching #3342 nationally. Today it ranks #3342, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ayal to Ayelet
The story of Ayelet
The phrase is old and its exact sense in the psalm heading is debated — a tune name, an instrument, an image — but Hebrew has kept it as the name of the morning star, which is one of the better metaphors any language has produced. As a personal name Ayelet is modern, part of the twentieth-century Israeli practice of taking plain Hebrew vocabulary as names, and it is widely used in Israel today. It appears in American records with Israeli and observant Jewish families.
Meaning
doe, gazelle
From Hebrew ayal, a deer or hart, with the feminine ending; the phrase ayelet hashachar heads the twenty-second psalm and is also the ordinary Hebrew term for the planet Venus seen at dawn.
How the name formed
- ayal
- Ayelet
Related forms: אילת
Pronouncing Ayelet
ah-yeh-LET
Three syllables with the stress at the end in Hebrew. English speakers usually say AY-uh-let.
Nicknames for Ayelet
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 202546 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3342reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +76.9%46 in 2025, from 26
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.
Ayelet in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- אילת in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Maryland.
Ayelets among us
people named Ayelet are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,941 born in 2025 was named Ayelet
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Trevor test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ayelet's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Trevor climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Trevor's path sketches the road Ayelet is walking now.
Ayelet 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 Ayelet is headed
Ayelet should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. 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.
Ayelet beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ayelet in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely beautiful phrase behind it.
- It is very widely used in Israel, so it has a real community that knows it exactly.
- Every letter is sounded, so the spelling and the sound match.
- The stress falls at the end in Hebrew and at the front in English mouths.
- It is unfamiliar in American English and will need spelling and explaining often.
- Ayelet and Ayelette both appear in Roman transliteration.
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What they receive
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Ayelet
Feminine · #3342 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ayelets are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Ayelet are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ayelet in 2025?
- Ayelet ranks #3342 among US girl names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ayelet?
- About 1 in every 34,941 US girls born in 2025 was named Ayelet — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ayelet with classmates?
- Ayelet will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ayelet
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zorah#3342 · Monique#3342 · Kinleigh#3342 · Emmelyn#3342 · Zyana#3342 · Swara#3342 · Azaleah#3342 · Elenora#3342
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ayelet? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ayelet and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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