Alaiya
A feminine Arabic name meaning "the high" or "the sublime".
Name Census estimates that about 2,790 living Americans carry the first name Alaiya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alaiya today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alaiya births was 2021 (396 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alaiya. 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 Alaiya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Alaiya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 122,851 Americans
Peak year
2021
396 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#934
Tracked since 1995
Census
Alaiya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 914 people with the first name Alaiya, which placed it at #13,274 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
#13,274
National first-name rank
People counted
914
914 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alaiya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaiya is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.1%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Alaiya 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 Alaiya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.8% · 537
- Hispanic or Latino18.1% · 165
- Two or more races11.3% · 103
- White9.1% · 83
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 9
Popularity
Alaiya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alaiya from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,562 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alaiya 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 Alaiya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alaiyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Alaiya, while Rhode Island, Kansas, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alaiya
The name Alaiya is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, tracing back to the medieval era. It is a feminine given name derived from the Arabic word "ala'a," which means "sublime" or "exalted." The name was likely popularized in the Middle East and North Africa during the golden age of Islamic civilization, which spanned from the 7th to the 13th centuries.
While the exact origins of the name are uncertain, some historical references suggest that it may have been mentioned in ancient Arabic poetry and literature. However, there is no definitive evidence of its appearance in religious scriptures or historical records from that time period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Alaiya can be found in the writings of the 10th-century Arab poet and scholar, Al-Mutanabbi. He is believed to have referenced a woman named Alaiya in one of his famous poems, describing her beauty and grace.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Alaiya. One such figure was Alaiya bint Ahmad al-Hadrami (1210-1266), a renowned Sufi mystic and scholar from Hadramawt, Yemen. She was known for her profound spiritual teachings and her contributions to the study of Islamic mysticism.
Another notable Alaiya was Alaiya bint al-Mahdi (776-828), a daughter of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi. She was a respected scholar and patron of the arts, known for her support of poets and intellectuals during the Abbasid era.
In the 14th century, Alaiya al-Qazdughli (1320-1390) was a prominent female architect and engineer from the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. She was responsible for the design and construction of several notable architectural works, including mosques and public buildings.
Alaiya bint Faris al-Qurashi (1270-1348) was a renowned scholar and poet from the city of Mecca. She was celebrated for her contributions to Arabic literature and her expertise in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence and hadith studies.
While the name Alaiya has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, it has since gained popularity in various parts of the world, transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries.
People
Alaiya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alaiya 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
Alaiya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alaiya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,790 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alaiya 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 122,851 US residents.
Is Alaiya a common name?
We classify Alaiya as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,810 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alaiya most popular?
The single biggest year for Alaiya was 2021, when 396 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alaiya is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alaiya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 914 people with the name Alaiya, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,274 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 Alaiya 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 Alaiya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alaiya appears almost entirely female. Of the 913 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 Alaiya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaiya is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.1%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Alaiya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alaiya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (537 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 Alaiya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alaiya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alaiya 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 Alaiya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alaiya 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 Alaiya 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 the name Alaiya?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Alaiya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.