Alleyah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "exalted" or "elevated".
Name Census estimates that about 322 living Americans carry the first name Alleyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alleyah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alleyah births was 2012 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alleyah. 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 Alleyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
322
~ 1 in 1,064,454 Americans
Peak year
2012
19 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2023 SSA rank
#15,294
Tracked since 1994
Census
Alleyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 248 people with the first name Alleyah, which placed it at #33,395 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
#33,395
National first-name rank
People counted
248
248 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
43.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alleyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alleyah is Black at 43.5%. The next largest groups are White (20.2%) and Hispanic (15.3%). 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 Alleyah 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 Alleyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American43.5% · 108
- White20.2% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino15.3% · 38
- Two or more races14.1% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.0% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Alleyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alleyah 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 126 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alleyah 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 Alleyah 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 Alleyah
The given name Alleyah is a relatively modern name that originated as a feminine variant of the Arabic name Ali. The root of the name Ali can be traced back to the Arabic word 'aliya', which means 'sublime' or 'exalted'. The name Ali has a long and significant history in the Islamic world, as it was the name of the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, who later became the fourth caliph of Islam.
Although the name Alleyah is not found in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has gained popularity in recent decades, particularly among Muslim communities. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Alleyah can be found in the United States, where it was given to a newborn baby girl in the late 20th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ali, which is the root of Alleyah. One of the most famous was Ali ibn Abi Talib (599-661 CE), the fourth caliph of Islam and the first imam of Shia Muslims. Another prominent figure was Ali al-Ridha (765-818 CE), the eighth imam of Shia Islam, who was known for his wisdom and piety.
In the modern era, the name Ali has been carried by several influential figures, including the renowned boxer Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), who was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. but changed his name after converting to Islam. Another notable Ali was Ali Shariati (1933-1977), an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist who played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
While the name Alleyah is not as widely known as its root name Ali, it has gained popularity in recent years, particularly in Western countries. One of the earliest recorded instances of a notable individual named Alleyah is Alleyah Brianne Rittmeyer, a young American singer and songwriter who gained recognition through her participation in various talent competitions in the early 2010s.
It is important to note that the historical records and references provided here are based on the available information and may not be exhaustive. As with many names, the origins and evolution of Alleyah are subject to ongoing research and interpretation.
People
Alleyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alleyah 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
Alleyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alleyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 322 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alleyah 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 1,064,454 US residents.
Is Alleyah a common name?
We classify Alleyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 327 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alleyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Alleyah was 2012, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alleyah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alleyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 248 people with the name Alleyah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,395 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 Alleyah 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 Alleyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alleyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 250 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Alleyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alleyah is Black at 43.5%. The next largest groups are White (20.2%) and Hispanic (15.3%). 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 Alleyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alleyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.5% (108 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 Alleyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alleyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alleyah 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 Alleyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alleyah 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 Alleyah 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 Alleyah as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.