Ayisha
Feminine · “Arabic aisha”
Arabic writes sh with one letter. Shin is a single character, and English needs two to represent the same sound because the Latin alphabet arrived without one. Every sh in an English transliteration of Arabic is a workaround, and the same is true of kh, gh, dh and th.
How old is the name Ayisha?
Ayisha first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Ayisha alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 1,000 people named Ayisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ayisha most popular?
Ayisha peaked in 1977, reaching #2381 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,479 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Where it comes from
From aisha to Ayisha
The story of Ayisha
The Latin alphabet was designed for Latin and has been adapted to hundreds of languages it fits badly. Arabic has twenty-eight consonants and at least a dozen of them have no Latin letter: the emphatic consonants, the pharyngeals, the glottal stop, the uvular q, and several more. Romanisation solves this with digraphs, sh, kh, gh, dh, th, and with diacritics that ordinary printing drops. The result is that a romanised Arabic name is always an approximation and frequently ambiguous: th can be two different Arabic letters, and the doubled letters that mark length in one system mean nothing in another. English has the same problem in reverse, which is why English words in Arabic script look strange to English speakers. The alphabet is a tool that fits one language and is borrowed by everyone.
Meaning
Arabic aisha, living or alive
From Arabic aisha, living, from the root a-y-sh, life. Aisha was the youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the most important transmitters of hadith. Ayisha inserts a y to represent the glottal break between the vowels, which Arabic writes with a distinct letter. It peaks in the American data in 1977.
How the name formed
- aisha
- Ayisha
Related forms: Aisha · Ayesha · Ayse
Pronouncing Ayisha
ah-EE-shah
Three syllables, stress on the second. The y in this spelling marks the break between the first two vowels, which Arabic writes with a distinct consonant. English speakers often say eye-EE-shah or AY-shah.
Nicknames for Ayisha
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 197737 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2381reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%11 in 2025, from 11
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.
Ayisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aisha in Arabic — transliteration
- Ayesha in English — spelling variant
- Ayse in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Ayishas among us
people named Ayisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Ayisha
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ayisha
- #8860
- Ayisha on the 2025 chart
- #298
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ayisha went to 11 girls in 2025, but Aisha, Aysha and Aishah are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,054, which makes it the 298th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,562 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,525 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Ayisha 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 Ivan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ayisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ivan climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ivan's path sketches the road Ayisha is walking now.
Ayisha 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
Ayisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ayisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and the historical figure is major.
- Aya and Isha are two usable short forms.
- The name is used across the entire Muslim world.
- At least six spellings circulate in English.
- Aisha is the form used in most reference works.
- The consonant the y stands for does not exist in English.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ayisha
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ayishas 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 Ayisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ayisha?
- Ayisha is one of 4 recorded spellings. Aisha is the more common one — 910 births in 2025 against 11 for Ayisha.
- How popular is the name Ayisha in 2025?
- Ayisha ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ayisha?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Ayisha — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ayisha with classmates?
- Ayisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ayisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ayisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ayisha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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