Allayah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "highest level" or "supreme."
Name Census estimates that about 390 living Americans carry the first name Allayah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Allayah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Allayah births was 2001 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Allayah. 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 Allayah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
390
~ 1 in 878,857 Americans
Peak year
2001
20 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,562
Tracked since 1994
Census
Allayah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 313 people with the first name Allayah, which placed it at #28,614 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
#28,614
National first-name rank
People counted
313
313 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Allayah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Allayah is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are White (15.7%) and Two or More Races (14.1%). 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 Allayah 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 Allayah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.1% · 182
- White15.7% · 49
- Two or more races14.1% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Popularity
Allayah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Allayah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 155 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Allayah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Allayah 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 Allayah 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 Allayah
The given name Allayah is believed to have its origins in Arabic and Hebrew cultures, tracing back to the early Middle Ages. In Arabic, the name is thought to derive from the word "Allahu," meaning "God," combined with the feminine suffix "-yah." This suggests that Allayah may have been used as a name to honor or express devotion to God.
In Hebrew, the name Allayah bears similarities to the word "Eliyah," which is a variant spelling of the name Elijah, a prominent figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. Elijah was a revered prophet known for his unwavering faith and miracles. It's possible that Allayah was influenced by or derived from this biblical name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Allayah can be found in the writings of the 12th-century Muslim scholar and philosopher, Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes. He mentioned a woman named Allayah in his works, though little is known about her beyond her name.
In the 14th century, there are records of a Jewish scholar and physician named Allayah ben Shlomo, who lived in Spain during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Iberia. He was known for his contributions to medical knowledge and his writings on philosophy.
During the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, there was a notable Ottoman princess named Allayah Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Selim II. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of educational institutions.
Another historical figure bearing the name Allayah was Allayah al-Idrisi, an Arab geographer and cartographer who lived in the 12th century. He was renowned for his groundbreaking work, the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq, which included detailed maps and descriptions of various regions around the world.
In the 18th century, Allayah bint Abdullah was a prominent Arab poet and scholar from the city of Mecca. Her poetry and writings on literature and theology were highly respected and widely circulated during her lifetime.
These examples highlight the rich cultural heritage and historical significance associated with the name Allayah, which has been used across various regions and time periods, often by individuals who made notable contributions to their respective fields.
People
Allayah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Allayah 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
Allayah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Allayah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 390 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Allayah 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 878,857 US residents.
Is Allayah a common name?
We classify Allayah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 395 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Allayah most popular?
The single biggest year for Allayah was 2001, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Allayah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Allayah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 313 people with the name Allayah, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,614 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 Allayah 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 Allayah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Allayah leans strongly female. 310 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Allayah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Allayah is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are White (15.7%) and Two or More Races (14.1%). 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 Allayah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Allayah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (182 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 Allayah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Allayah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Allayah 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 Allayah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Allayah 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 Allayah 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 Allayah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.