Athaliah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is exalted".
Name Census estimates that about 330 living Americans carry the first name Athaliah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Athaliah today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Athaliah births was 2024 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Athaliah. 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 Athaliah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
330
~ 1 in 1,038,650 Americans
Peak year
2024
65 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,657
Tracked since 1999
Popularity
Athaliah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Athaliah 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 162 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
Athaliah 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 Athaliah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Athaliahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Athaliah, while Washington, Florida, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Athaliah
The name Athaliah has its origins in Hebrew culture and language. It is a combination of the Hebrew words 'athal' meaning 'afflicted' and 'Yah' which is a shortened form of the name Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God. The name Athaliah can therefore be interpreted to mean 'afflicted by God' or 'God's afflicted one'.
Athaliah is a name that appears in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. She was a princess of Israel who later became the Queen of Judah through her marriage to King Jehoram. Athaliah is notorious for her attempt to wipe out the entire royal family of Judah in order to seize power for herself. Her reign as Queen of Judah from 842-835 BC is described as one of the most wicked and idolatrous periods in the history of the kingdom.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Athaliah comes from a clay seal impression found in Israel, dating back to around the 8th century BC. This seal likely belonged to a woman named Athaliah who lived during the same time period as the biblical Queen Athaliah.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women named Athaliah. Athaliah of Judah, mentioned earlier, was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, and the wife of King Jehoram of Judah. Another Athaliah was the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Michael III, who lived in the 9th century AD.
Another famous bearer of the name was Athaliah Wilcox Obholzer (1891-1964), an American educator and activist who was a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement and a leader in the National Woman's Party. Athaliah Moloobhog (1855-1923) was a Native American artist and educator from the Choctaw Nation, known for her intricate beadwork and advocacy for Native American education.
One of the most recent historical figures with the name Athaliah was Athaliah Kalloo (1919-2003), a South African anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist who played a key role in organizing workers' strikes and protests against the apartheid regime in the 1940s and 1950s.
People
Athaliah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Athaliah 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
Athaliah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Athaliah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 330 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Athaliah 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 1,038,650 US residents.
Is Athaliah a common name?
We classify Athaliah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 332 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Athaliah most popular?
The single biggest year for Athaliah was 2024, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Athaliah is about 8 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 Athaliah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Athaliah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Athaliah 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 Athaliah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Athaliah 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 Athaliah 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 Athaliah as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.