Ayasha
A feminine Arabic name meaning "life" or "she who lives".
Name Census estimates that about 280 living Americans carry the first name Ayasha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ayasha today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ayasha births was 2011 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ayasha. 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 Ayasha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
280
~ 1 in 1,224,123 Americans
Peak year
2011
17 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2019 SSA rank
#14,064
Tracked since 1974
Census
Ayasha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 329 people with the first name Ayasha, which placed it at #27,678 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
#27,678
National first-name rank
People counted
329
329 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
32.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ayasha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayasha is Black at 32.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.7%) and Two or More Races (16.4%). 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 Ayasha 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 Ayasha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American32.5% · 107
- Asian and Pacific Islander23.7% · 78
- Two or more races16.4% · 54
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 34
- White9.7% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native7.3% · 24
Popularity
Ayasha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ayasha from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 87 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
Ayasha 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 Ayasha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ayashas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ayasha
The name Ayasha is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, with roots dating back to the 7th century CE. In Arabic, the name is spelled as "أياشة" and is thought to be derived from the word "ayyash," which means "long-lived" or "eternal."
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Ayasha can be found in ancient Arabic poetry and literature. It was often used as a symbolic name, representing the idea of longevity and the desire for a long, fulfilling life.
Historically, the name Ayasha gained prominence during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the Islamic world between the 8th and 13th centuries. During this time, several notable figures bore the name Ayasha, including Ayasha bint Al-Tufayl, a renowned scholar and poet who lived in the 9th century CE.
Another prominent historical figure with the name Ayasha was Ayasha Al-Baghdadiyya, a 10th-century scholar and writer from Baghdad. She is remembered for her contributions to the fields of literature, poetry, and Islamic jurisprudence.
In the 12th century, Ayasha Al-Dimashqiyya, a Syrian calligrapher and artist, gained recognition for her exquisite calligraphic works and illuminated manuscripts.
Moving forward to the 14th century, Ayasha bint Ahmad Al-Maqdisi was a respected Islamic scholar and jurist from Jerusalem. Her writings on Islamic law and theology were widely studied and influential during her time.
Lastly, in the 16th century, Ayasha Al-Andalusiyya was a Spanish-born poet and writer who lived during the final years of the Moorish rule in Spain. Her poetry, which often celebrated the beauty of nature and the human experience, has been preserved and studied by scholars of Arabic literature.
These are just a few examples of notable historical figures who bore the name Ayasha, showcasing the enduring legacy and rich cultural heritage associated with this name throughout various eras and regions of the Islamic world.
People
Ayasha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ayasha 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
Ayasha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ayasha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 280 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ayasha 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 1,224,123 US residents.
Is Ayasha a common name?
We classify Ayasha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 289 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ayasha most popular?
The single biggest year for Ayasha was 2011, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ayasha is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ayasha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 329 people with the name Ayasha, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,678 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 Ayasha 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 Ayasha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ayasha leans strongly female. 331 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Ayasha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ayasha is Black at 32.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.7%) and Two or More Races (16.4%). 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 Ayasha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ayasha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.5% (107 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 Ayasha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ayasha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ayasha 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 Ayasha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ayasha 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 Ayasha 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 Ayasha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Ayasha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.