Aiysha
An Arabic feminine name meaning "life" or "living".
Name Census estimates that about 139 living Americans carry the first name Aiysha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aiysha today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aiysha births was 1979 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aiysha. 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 Aiysha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
139
~ 1 in 2,465,859 Americans
Peak year
1979
20 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2010 SSA rank
#17,100
Tracked since 1975
Census
Aiysha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 221 people with the first name Aiysha, which placed it at #36,071 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
#36,071
National first-name rank
People counted
221
221 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aiysha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aiysha is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.7%) and White (8.1%). 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 Aiysha 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 Aiysha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.8% · 119
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.7% · 59
- White8.1% · 18
- Two or more races5.9% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Aiysha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aiysha from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 67 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aiysha 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 Aiysha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aiyshas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Aiysha
The name Aiysha is an Arabic name derived from the root word 'aysh', which means 'life' or 'to live'. It is a variation of the name Aisha, which was the name of one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad. The name gained popularity in the 7th century during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
Aisha bint Abi Bakr, born in 614 CE in Mecca, was one of the most prominent figures in early Islamic history. She was known for her intelligence, wisdom, and her role in transmitting the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. She is revered as a scholar and is considered one of the most important female figures in Islam.
Another notable historical figure with the name Aiysha was Aiysha al-Baʽuniyah, a 10th-century Andalusian poet from Seville, Spain. She was renowned for her poetry and her contribution to the literary and cultural scene of the time.
In the 12th century, Aiysha al-Hurra was a prominent female ruler and pirate in the Mediterranean region. She was the governor of Tétouan, Morocco, and is known for her resistance against the Portuguese invasion and her naval prowess.
Aiysha al-Taymuriyah, born in the 14th century, was a Syrian scholar and poet. She was known for her expertise in various fields, including literature, astronomy, and Islamic jurisprudence, and her contributions to the intellectual and cultural life of Damascus.
Aiysha al-Riyahiyyah, an 18th-century Moroccan writer and scholar, was renowned for her contributions to Islamic literature and her expertise in various fields, including rhetoric, poetry, and calligraphy.
These are just a few examples of historical figures with the name Aiysha, which has a rich heritage and significance in the Arab and Islamic world. The name has endured through the centuries and continues to be a popular choice among Arabic-speaking communities.
People
Aiysha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aiysha 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
Aiysha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aiysha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 139 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aiysha 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 2,465,859 US residents.
Is Aiysha a common name?
We classify Aiysha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 148 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aiysha most popular?
The single biggest year for Aiysha was 1979, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aiysha is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aiysha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 221 people with the name Aiysha, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,071 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 Aiysha 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 Aiysha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aiysha appears almost entirely female. Of the 224 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Aiysha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aiysha is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.7%) and White (8.1%). 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 Aiysha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Aiysha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.8% (119 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 Aiysha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aiysha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aiysha 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 Aiysha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aiysha 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 Aiysha 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 Aiysha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Aiysha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.