Ilah
Of Arabic origin, meaning "supreme being" or "God".
Name Census estimates that about 740 living Americans carry the first name Ilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ilah today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilah births was 2022 (70 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilah. 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.
People living today
740
~ 1 in 463,182 Americans
Peak year
2022
70 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,978
Tracked since 1891
Popularity
Ilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilah from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 351 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
Ilah 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 Ilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Michigan, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Ilah, while Ohio, Missouri, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilah
The name Ilah is of Arabic origin and is derived from the word "Ilah," which means "God" or "deity" in Arabic. This name has its roots in the ancient Semitic languages and can be traced back to pre-Islamic times.
In the context of Islam, the word "Ilah" is used to refer to the one true God, Allah. The Quran frequently mentions the word "Ilah" in this context. However, the name Ilah itself is not directly mentioned in the Quran or other Islamic scriptures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ilah can be found in ancient Arabic poetry and literature. For example, the famous pre-Islamic Arab poet Imru' al-Qais (c. 501-570 CE) used the word "Ilah" in his poems, although not necessarily as a personal name.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ilah. For instance, Ilah al-Amiri (c. 970-1023 CE) was a famous Arab poet and literary figure from present-day Iraq during the Abbasid Caliphate era.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ilah ibn Ahmad al-Hiri (c. 1004-1089 CE), a renowned Arab mathematician and astronomer from present-day Iraq. He made significant contributions to the field of trigonometry and wrote several influential works on mathematics and astronomy.
In more recent times, Ilah Naqiyah (1857-1920) was an Indonesian princess and national heroine who played a crucial role in the struggle against Dutch colonialism in Java.
Ilah Tan (1910-2008) was a Chinese-Indonesian writer and journalist who was known for her literary works and contributions to the Indonesian literary scene in the 20th century.
Ilah Sadoqi (1938-2021) was a prominent Afghan writer, poet, and scholar who made significant contributions to the preservation and promotion of Afghan culture and literature.
These examples illustrate that the name Ilah has been used across various cultures and time periods, with individuals bearing this name making notable contributions in fields such as literature, mathematics, astronomy, and national liberation movements.
People
Ilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 740 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilah 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 463,182 US residents.
Is Ilah a common name?
We classify Ilah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,734 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilah was 2022, when 70 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilah is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ilah 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.
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.