Ayla
Feminine
Ayla belongs to two long traditions at once: it is an established Turkish name built on *ay*, the word for moon, and it is also used in Hebrew as a form of Ayala. English-speaking parents met it largely through Jean M. Auel's *Clan of the Cave Bear* and the Earth's Children novels that followed it from 1980 onward. Two syllables, four letters, and an open vowel at each end — it moves easily in the mouth.
How old is the name Ayla?
Ayla first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Ayla is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 38,000 people named Ayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ayla most popular?
Ayla peaked in 2024, reaching #69 nationally. Today it ranks #77, 8 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From ay (Turkish: moon) to Ayla
The story of Ayla
The Turkish Ayla is the older documented thread — a name formed from *ay*, moon, and in ordinary use in Turkey and Azerbaijani-speaking areas well before it appeared in American records. The Hebrew line runs separately, where Ayla stands as a shorter form of Ayala. English-speaking readers encountered the name in quantity through Jean M. Auel's prehistoric novels, beginning with *Clan of the Cave Bear* in 1980, whose central character carries it. Its American wave is a genuinely recent thing: most people wearing it here are children, not adults.
Meaningscholars disagree
Turkish: 'moonlight' or 'halo around the moon'. Hebrew: 'doe' or 'oak', through Ayala.
The Turkish reading is straightforward: *ay* means moon, and Ayla is glossed as moonlight or the ring of light around the moon. Independently, Ayla is used in Hebrew as a variant of Ayala, tied to words for a female deer and for the oak or terebinth tree. Neither reading borrowed from the other; the same spelling simply arrived twice.
How the name formed
- ayTurkish: moon
- Ayla
Related forms: Ayla · Ayla · Ayala · Aylin · Ayelet
Pronouncing Ayla
AY-lah
The usual American pronunciation is AY-lah, with the first syllable like the letter A. In Turkish, *ay* sounds like the English word 'eye', so a Turkish speaker will say something closer to eye-LAH. Both are correct in their own setting, and families who use the name across languages often live with both.
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 20243,253 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #69reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −3.2%3,149 in 2025, from 3,253
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.
Ayla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ayla in Turkish — same name
- Ayla in Azerbaijani — same name
- Ayala in Hebrew — related form
- Aylin in Turkish — related form
- Ayelet in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, INSEE. Sources
Aylas among us
people named Ayla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 510 born in 2025 was named Ayla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ayla
- #77
- Ayla on the 2025 chart
- #67
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ayla went to 3,149 girls in 2025, but Aila, Aylah and Aiyla and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 11 spellings went to 3,867, which makes it the 67th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10 places above the chart.
and 4 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 416 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 510 for Ayla 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 Leona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ayla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leona climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leona's path sketches the road Ayla is walking now.
Ayla is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ayla is headed
Ayla looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 24% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Ayla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ayla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and easy to spell from hearing it once — four letters, no silent letters, no doubled consonants.
- Works in Turkish, Hebrew and English without translation or adjustment, which matters in families that span more than one of them.
- Already recognized in several other countries, including Scotland, Canada, England and Wales, and France.
- Complete as it stands: no nickname is needed, and none has become standard.
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood with Isla, Layla, Lyla and Ayda. Expect a certain amount of gentle correcting, spoken and written.
- The AY-lah and eye-LAH pronunciations both have real claim to the name, so she may hear it two ways depending on who is speaking.
- The name is climbing rather than settling, so it will likely be better known by the time she starts school than it is now — familiar, though still not one of the names in every classroom.
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What they receive
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Ayla
Feminine · #77 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 38,000 people named Ayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ayla?
- Ayla is the most-used spelling in US records — 3,149 of the 3,867 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Aila, Aylah, Aiyla, Aylla, Aayla and Ailah.
- How popular is the name Ayla in 2025?
- Ayla ranks #77 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,149 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Ayla?
- About 1 in every 510 US girls born in 2025 was named Ayla — 3,149 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ayla with classmates?
- Ayla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ayla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maeve#76 · Liliana#78 · Daisy#75 · Melody#79 · Lyla#80 · Emery#74 · Millie#73 · Madeline#81
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ayla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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