Aley
Hebrew name meaning "ascent" or "higher place."
Name Census estimates that about 38 living Americans carry the first name Aley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Aley today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aley births was 1987 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aley. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Aley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
38
~ 1 in 9,019,851 Americans
Peak year
1987
6 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
1987 SSA rank
#6,115
Tracked since 1987
Census
Aley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 344 people with the first name Aley, which placed it at #26,849 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
#26,849
National first-name rank
People counted
344
344 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aley is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (24.1%) and Hispanic (18.3%). 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 Aley 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 Aley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.6% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander24.1% · 83
- Hispanic or Latino18.3% · 63
- Black or African American6.4% · 22
- Two or more races2.9% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.6% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Aley
Aley leans heavily female at 84.6% of total registrations, but 6 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Aley as a male name
- Ranked #6,115 in 1987
- 6 male births in 1987
- Peak: 1987 (6 births)
Aley as a female name
- Ranked #17,420 in 2009
- 5 female births in 2009
- Peak: 2006 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Aley on both sides of the split. Of the 340 people counted with this name, 125 were male (36.8%) and 215 were female (63.2%).
Popularity
Aley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aley from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 33 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
Aley 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 Aley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aley
The name Aley has its origins in the Arabic language, derived from the word "ali" meaning "high" or "exalted." It is believed to have been in use in the Middle East and parts of North Africa since ancient times, with roots tracing back to the 7th century CE or earlier.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Aley can be found in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, where it appears as a variation of the name Ali, referring to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Ali is revered as one of the most important figures in Islamic history and is considered the first Imam by Shia Muslims.
In the 9th century, an Arab scholar named Aley ibn Isa al-Jahiz was born in Basra, modern-day Iraq. He is renowned for his contributions to the field of Arabic literature and is considered one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the Abbasid era.
During the 12th century, Aley ibn Ahmad al-Razi, a Persian mathematician and astronomer, made significant advancements in the study of trigonometry and developed methods for solving complex equations. His works were widely influential in the Islamic world and beyond.
In the 14th century, an Ottoman Turkish military commander named Aley Pasha served under Sultan Murad II and played a crucial role in the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.
Another notable figure bearing the name Aley was Aley ibn Ridwan, a 12th-century Egyptian physician and philosopher who wrote extensively on medicine, philosophy, and astronomy. His works were widely studied in the medieval Islamic world and helped shape the development of medical knowledge during that time.
While the name Aley has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, it has been adopted and used in various other cultures and regions over the centuries, reflecting the diverse connections and influences across different civilizations throughout history.
People
Aley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aley 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
Aley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aley 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 9,019,851 US residents.
Is Aley a common name?
We classify Aley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 50.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 39 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aley most popular?
The single biggest year for Aley was 1987, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aley is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 344 people with the name Aley, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,849 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 Aley 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 Aley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Aley on both sides of the split. Of the 340 people counted with this name, 125 were male (36.8%) and 215 were female (63.2%). 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 Aley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aley is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (24.1%) and Hispanic (18.3%). 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 Aley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.6% (157 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 Aley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aley a female name?
Yes, 84.6% of people registered as Aley 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 Aley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aley 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 Aley 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 Aley?
Find out how many Americans are named Aley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.