Ailee
A feminine Korean name derived from the English word "alien".
Name Census estimates that about 840 living Americans carry the first name Ailee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ailee today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ailee births was 2022 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ailee. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ailee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
840
~ 1 in 408,041 Americans
Peak year
2022
56 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,747
Tracked since 1974
Census
Ailee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 677 people with the first name Ailee, which placed it at #16,602 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16,602
National first-name rank
People counted
677
677 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ailee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ailee is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.4%) and Hispanic (13.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ailee described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ailee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.0% · 325
- Asian and Pacific Islander25.4% · 172
- Hispanic or Latino13.9% · 94
- Two or more races8.1% · 55
- Black or African American4.3% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Ailee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ailee from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 396 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ailee remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ailee by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ailee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ailees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Ailee, while New York, Massachusetts, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ailee
The name Ailee has its origins in the Middle East, deriving from the Arabic language. It is believed to have emerged sometime in the 7th or 8th century AD during the Islamic Golden Age. The name is a variation of the Arabic name Aaliyah, which translates to "the highest, most exalted one" or "the sublime one."
In ancient Arabic texts, the name Ailee is often associated with descriptions of spiritual enlightenment and divine grace. Some scholars believe it may have been inspired by passages from the Quran that speak of the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad to the heavenly realms.
The earliest recorded mention of the name Ailee can be found in historical documents from the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a vast territory spanning parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia between the 8th and 13th centuries. During this period, the name was relatively uncommon but held a significant cultural and religious significance.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Ailee was Ailee bint Al-Rashid, a renowned poet and scholar who lived in Baghdad during the 9th century AD. Her works are preserved in various Arabic literary anthologies and are celebrated for their eloquence and spiritual depth.
In the 12th century, Ailee al-Dimashqi, a Syrian mathematician and astronomer, made notable contributions to the field of trigonometry. Her treatise on the sine quadrant was widely studied and influenced the development of Islamic mathematics and astronomy.
Another historical figure of note is Ailee al-Baghdadi, a 13th-century Sufi mystic and spiritual teacher from Baghdad. Her teachings on the path of divine love and self-realization gained her a devoted following, and her writings continue to be studied by Sufi orders to this day.
In the 16th century, Ailee al-Kurdistani, a Kurdish poet and scholar, gained recognition for her mastery of Arabic literature and her contributions to the preservation of Kurdish cultural heritage.
The name Ailee has also been recorded in ancient Persian texts, indicating its spread and adoption across various Middle Eastern cultures and regions over the centuries.
People
Ailee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ailee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ailee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ailee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 840 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ailee going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 408,041 US residents.
Is Ailee a common name?
We classify Ailee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 849 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ailee most popular?
The single biggest year for Ailee was 2022, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ailee is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ailee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 677 people with the name Ailee, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,602 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ailee in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ailee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ailee appears almost entirely female. Of the 678 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ailee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ailee is White at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.4%) and Hispanic (13.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ailee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ailee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (325 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ailee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ailee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ailee in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ailee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ailee in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ailee can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Ailee?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.