Ayse
Feminine · “living”
In 1928 Turkey threw out the Arabic script and adopted a Latin alphabet built to order, with a letter for every sound and no letter doing two jobs. The cedilla under the s was part of that design: s says s, and s-with-a-tail says sh. Ayse is spelled Ayse in America because the tail has nowhere to go.
How old is the name Ayse?
Ayse first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Ayse alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 500 people named Ayse are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ayse most popular?
Ayse peaked in 1958, reaching #4890 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 6,027 places below that high. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aisha to Ayse
The story of Ayse
The alphabet reform was carried out in a matter of months, and it was unusually thorough: the new letters were chosen so that Turkish spelling would be almost perfectly predictable, which is why a Turkish reader never has to guess. Ayse in Turkish is spelled with s-cedilla and is said in two clean syllables with a full vowel at the end. American forms have no field for the cedilla, so it disappears, and with it the instruction to say sh. What is left looks to an English reader like a one-syllable word ending in a silent e, which is exactly the reading the Turkish alphabet was designed to make impossible.
Meaning
living, alive
The Turkish form of Arabic Aisha, from a root meaning to live. It came into Turkish with Islam and has been among the most given women's names in Anatolia ever since.
How the name formed
- Aisha
- Ayse
Related forms: Ayşe · Aisha · Ajsa
Pronouncing Ayse
eye-SHEH
Two syllables. The final e is a full vowel and is never silent — it is the whole second syllable. English readers reliably silence it and produce a single syllable, which is a different word entirely.
Nicknames for Ayse
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 201524 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4890reached in 1958
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%8 in 2025, from 12
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.
Ayse in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ayşe in Turkish — spelling variant
- Aisha in Arabic — same name
- Ajsa in Bosnian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Ayses among us
people named Ayse are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Ayse
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ayse 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
Ayse beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ayse 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 and an unbroken record in Arabic and Turkish alike.
- Two syllables, four letters, and nothing hard in either of them.
- One of the most widely used women's names in Turkey, so it is instantly recognized there.
- Without the cedilla the s says s, and Americans will say AY-see or AYSS.
- The final e will be treated as silent by almost everyone who reads it before hearing it.
- In Turkey it is extremely ordinary, which is either the comfort of it or the objection to it.
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What they receive
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Ayse
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ayses are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Ayse are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ayse in 2025?
- Ayse ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ayse?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Ayse — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ayse with classmates?
- Ayse will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ayse
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ayse? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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