Alijha
A modern invented name with no clear etymology or meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 58 living Americans carry the first name Alijha. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Alijha today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alijha births was 1997 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alijha. 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 Alijha. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
58
~ 1 in 5,909,558 Americans
Peak year
1997
6 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2017 SSA rank
#12,338
Tracked since 1997
Gender
Gender distribution for Alijha
Alijha leans heavily male at 81.4% of total registrations, but 11 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Alijha as a male name
- Ranked #12,338 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 2003 (6 births)
Alijha as a female name
- Ranked #15,130 in 2000
- 5 female births in 2000
- Peak: 1997 (6 births)
Popularity
Alijha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alijha from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 27 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
Alijha 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 Alijha 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 Alijha
The name Alijha is an uncommon variant spelling of the Arabic name Aaliyah, which means "exalted" or "rising high" in Arabic. Its origins can be traced back to the ancient Semitic language of the Middle East.
The name Aaliyah is believed to have first appeared in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, where it is mentioned as one of the attributes of God. It is derived from the Arabic root word "alaa," which means "to rise" or "to be elevated."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alijha dates back to the 7th century AD, when it was given to a woman named Alijha bint Abi Bakr, who was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Alijha or its variants. One of the most famous was Alijha al-Maarri, a renowned Arab philosopher, poet, and writer who lived from 973 to 1057 AD in present-day Syria.
Another notable bearer of the name was Alijha Mustafa, a 16th-century Ottoman calligrapher and illuminator known for his exquisite works of art.
In the 19th century, Alijha Izetbegovic, a Bosnian scholar and politician, played a pivotal role in Bosnia and Herzegovina's struggle for independence. He served as the country's first president from 1992 to 2000.
More recently, the American singer and actress Aaliyah Dana Haughton, known mononymously as Aaliyah, popularized the name in the late 20th century. She was a rising star in the music industry before her untimely death in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22.
While the spelling "Alijha" is an uncommon variant, the name retains its strong connection to its Arabic roots and its meaning of "exalted" or "rising high."
People
Alijha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alijha 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
Alijha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alijha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 58 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alijha 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 5,909,558 US residents.
Is Alijha a common name?
We classify Alijha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 59 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alijha most popular?
The single biggest year for Alijha was 1997, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alijha is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Alijha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alijha a male name?
Yes, 81.4% of people registered as Alijha in the SSA data are male. 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 Alijha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alijha 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 Alijha 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have Alijha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Alijha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.