Yalitza
Feminine
In 2018 a schoolteacher from Oaxaca with no acting experience was cast in a Mexican film, carried it, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Her name was Yalitza, and for about a year afterwards it was one of the most talked-about names in Mexico.
How old is the name Yalitza?
Yalitza first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Yalitza alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,000 people named Yalitza are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yalitza most popular?
Yalitza peaked in 2019, reaching #1412 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,505 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Yalitza
A name attached to one public figure moves differently from a name attached to a fashion. It rises quickly, in a single stretch of years rather than a decade, and it rises for people who can say exactly why they chose it, which is rare. Yalitza did that: a very small number of children carried the name for thirty years, and then a film and an award season put it in front of the whole Spanish-speaking world at once. What sat underneath was already there — the spelling belongs to a family of Mexican names built on the same sounds — but almost nobody outside those families had met it. That is a different kind of history from an etymology, and it is the one this name actually has.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source has been established. Yalitza appears in Mexican and Caribbean records from the 1980s and is sometimes credited to Nahuatl or to a Taino word, without evidence in either case. It is best described as a modern coinage in the Spanish-speaking Americas, which is honest and not a criticism.
Pronouncing Yalitza
yah-LEET-sah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The tz is one sound, the ts of cats, and the y at the front is a consonant. English readers reliably say ya-LIT-zuh, splitting the tz, which is close enough to be understood.
Nicknames for Yalitza
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
- 1981
- Most girls named
- 2019159 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1412reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +14.3%8 in 2025, from 7
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.
Yalitza in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yalitza in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Yalitzas among us
people named Yalitza are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Yalitza
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 Karah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yalitza's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Karah climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Karah's path sketches the road Yalitza is walking now.
Yalitza 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
Yalitza beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yalitza in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three open syllables with a clear central stress that Spanish and English speakers both manage.
- Three short forms in genuine use rather than constructed.
- Its recent history is documented precisely, which very few names can say.
- It is closely identified with one person, and for a while that association will arrive before the child does.
- There is no documented meaning, and the attributions printed for it cannot be checked.
- The tz will be pulled apart into two sounds by most English speakers.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Yalitza
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yalitzas 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 Yalitza are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yalitza in 2025?
- Yalitza ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yalitza?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Yalitza — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yalitza with classmates?
- Yalitza will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yalitza
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 Yalitza? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yalitza and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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