Iliyah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is my God".
Name Census estimates that about 333 living Americans carry the first name Iliyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Iliyah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iliyah births was 2012 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iliyah. 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
333
~ 1 in 1,029,292 Americans
Peak year
2012
24 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,091
Tracked since 1998
Popularity
Iliyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iliyah 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 146 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
Iliyah 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 Iliyah 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 Iliyah
The name Iliyah originates from the Hebrew language and has its roots in ancient Judaic culture. It is a variant spelling of the biblical name Elijah, which means "my God is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is God." The name Elijah can be traced back to the 9th century BCE and was borne by the famous prophet Elijah in the Hebrew Bible.
Iliyah first appeared in religious scriptures and texts, particularly in the Old Testament of the Bible. The prophet Elijah, also known as Iliyah, played a pivotal role in the biblical narrative, performing miracles and confronting the corrupt rulers of his time. His name has been revered throughout Jewish and Christian traditions for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Iliyah can be found in the Book of Kings, where Elijah is described as a prophet from Tishbe in Gilead. The name gained popularity among Jewish communities and later spread to other cultures through religious and historical accounts.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Iliyah or its variants. One of the most famous was Elijah ben Solomon, also known as the Genius of Vilna or the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), a renowned Lithuanian-Jewish rabbi and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of the Talmud and Jewish mysticism.
Another prominent figure was Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975), an African-American religious leader and the founder of the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that emphasized black empowerment and self-determination.
In the realm of literature, Elijah Muhammed (1917-1990) was an Egyptian writer and journalist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988 for his work that explored themes of alienation and identity.
The name Iliyah also found its way into the world of music, with Elijah Wald (born 1959), an American musician, author, and scholar who specialized in the study of blues and folk music.
Finally, Elijah Anderson (born 1943) is an American sociologist and author known for his work on urban ethnography, particularly his studies on the African-American experience in inner-city environments.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have carried the name Iliyah or its variants, each leaving their mark in their respective fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human culture and achievement.
People
Iliyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iliyah 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
Iliyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iliyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 333 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iliyah 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 1,029,292 US residents.
Is Iliyah a common name?
We classify Iliyah 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, 337 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iliyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Iliyah was 2012, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iliyah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Iliyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Iliyah 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.