Aisha
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "life" or "alive".
Name Census estimates that about 25,095 living Americans carry the first name Aisha. It sits at #346 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aisha today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aisha births was 1977 (1,550 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aisha. 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 Aisha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,658 Americans
Peak year
1977
1,550 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
1990 SSA rank
#346
Tracked since 1950
Census
Aisha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 23,437 people with the first name Aisha, which placed it at #1,447 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
#1,447
National first-name rank
People counted
23K
23,437 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aisha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aisha is Black at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.0%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Aisha 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 Aisha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.4% · 12,038
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.0% · 4,677
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 2,760
- White10.5% · 2,467
- Two or more races6.0% · 1,409
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 86
Gender
Gender distribution for Aisha
Out of the 26,048 babies given the name Aisha since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Aisha as a male name
- Ranked #6,426 in 1990
- 7 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1977 (10 births)
Aisha as a female name
- Ranked #346 in 2024
- 900 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (1,540 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aisha appears almost entirely female. Of the 23,439 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Aisha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aisha from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,421 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aisha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aisha 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 Aisha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aishas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Aisha, while Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 549 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aisha
The name Aisha has its origins in the Arabic language and is derived from the root word 'aysh', meaning 'life' or 'to live'. It was a popular name given to girls in the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding regions during the 6th and 7th centuries CE.
One of the most notable historical figures to bear the name Aisha was Aisha bint Abi Bakr, the third wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born in 614 CE in Mecca, she was revered for her intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge of Islamic traditions. Her accounts and narrations of the prophet's life and teachings are extensively recorded in the hadith literature.
In ancient Arabic texts and poetry, the name Aisha was often associated with qualities such as beauty, grace, and vitality. It was also used as a symbolic representation of the concept of living a fulfilled and prosperous life.
Throughout history, several notable women have carried the name Aisha. One such figure was Aisha al-Baʿuniyah, a 9th-century Arab mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the development of algebraic techniques and the study of celestial bodies.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Aisha Kandisha, a legendary figure in Moroccan folklore who was believed to possess supernatural powers and was associated with healing and protection.
In the 12th century, Aisha al-Hurra was a renowned Andalusian leader and diplomat who played a crucial role in the politics and governance of the Marinid Sultanate in present-day Morocco.
During the 19th century, Aisha bint Muhammed bin Abdulrahman Al Sudairi was a prominent Saudi Arabian poet and scholar who was highly respected for her literary works and contributions to preserving traditional Arabic culture.
These examples illustrate the historical significance and cultural resonance of the name Aisha, which has been borne by influential figures across various fields, from religion and academia to literature and politics.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Aisha
People
Aisha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aisha 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
Aisha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aisha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25,095 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aisha 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 13,658 US residents.
Is Aisha a common name?
We classify Aisha as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,048 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aisha most popular?
The single biggest year for Aisha was 1977, when 1,550 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aisha is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aisha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 23,437 people with the name Aisha, or 7.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,447 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 Aisha 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 Aisha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aisha appears almost entirely female. Of the 23,439 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Aisha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aisha is Black at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.0%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Aisha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Aisha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (12,038 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 Aisha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aisha a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Aisha 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 Aisha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aisha 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 Aisha 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 have Aisha as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.