Aylan
A Turkish name related to the word "ayla" meaning month or moon.
Name Census estimates that about 620 living Americans carry the first name Aylan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Aylan today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aylan births was 2016 (96 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aylan. 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 Aylan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
620
~ 1 in 552,830 Americans
Peak year
2016
96 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,828
Tracked since 2008
Census
Aylan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 400 people with the first name Aylan, which placed it at #24,171 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
#24,171
National first-name rank
People counted
400
400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
52.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aylan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aylan is Hispanic at 52.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.3%) and Black (6.8%). 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 Aylan 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 Aylan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino52.5% · 210
- White35.3% · 141
- Black or African American6.8% · 27
- Two or more races3.5% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 8
Popularity
Aylan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aylan from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 373 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aylan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aylan 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 Aylan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aylans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Aylan, while Georgia, Arizona, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aylan
The name Aylan has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is a variant spelling of the Arabic name Aylan, which is derived from the root word "ayl," meaning "night" or "evening." The name is believed to have emerged in the Middle East region during the early centuries of the Islamic era.
In Arabic literature and poetry, the name Aylan has been used to symbolize beauty, tranquility, and the serene nature of the night. It has been mentioned in several ancient Arabic texts and manuscripts, although its exact origins remain somewhat obscure.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Aylan can be found in the historical records of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a significant portion of the Middle East and North Africa from the 8th to the 13th century. During this period, several notable figures bore the name Aylan, including Aylan al-Kindi, a prominent Arab philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 9th century.
Throughout the centuries, the name Aylan has been carried by various individuals of historical significance. Among them are Aylan al-Shafi'i, a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist who lived in the 8th century and played a pivotal role in the development of Islamic jurisprudence. Another notable figure was Aylan al-Hamdani, a 10th-century Arab geographer and historian who authored several important works on the geography and history of the Islamic world.
In the 12th century, Aylan al-Dimashqi, a Syrian poet and writer, gained recognition for his literary contributions, including his famous work "Kitab al-Isharah ila Mahasin al-Tijarah" (The Book of Indications of the Merits of Trade).
Moving forward in time, the name Aylan was also borne by Aylan al-Kurdi, a Syrian Kurdish refugee who tragically drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 while attempting to reach Europe. The heartbreaking image of his lifeless body on a Turkish beach became a powerful symbol of the refugee crisis, drawing global attention to the plight of displaced people.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have carried the name Aylan, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human culture and society.
People
Aylan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aylan 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
Aylan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aylan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 620 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aylan 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 552,830 US residents.
Is Aylan a common name?
We classify Aylan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 624 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aylan most popular?
The single biggest year for Aylan was 2016, when 96 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aylan is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aylan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 400 people with the name Aylan, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,171 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 Aylan 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 Aylan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aylan leans strongly male. 334 people counted with this name were male (82.9%), compared with 69 female bearers (17.1%). 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 Aylan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aylan is Hispanic at 52.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.3%) and Black (6.8%). 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 Aylan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Aylan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.5% (210 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 Aylan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aylan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aylan 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 Aylan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aylan 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 Aylan 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 Americans are named Aylan?
See how many people share the name Aylan on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.