Walaa
An Arabic name meaning "loyalty" or "allegiance".
Name Census estimates that about 74 living Americans carry the first name Walaa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Walaa today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Walaa births was 2001 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Walaa. 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 Walaa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Walaa. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
74
~ 1 in 4,631,815 Americans
Peak year
2001
8 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2021 SSA rank
#17,516
Tracked since 1993
Census
Walaa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 622 people with the first name Walaa, which placed it at #17,634 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
#17,634
National first-name rank
People counted
622
622 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Walaa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walaa is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Walaa 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 Walaa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.9% · 547
- Black or African American5.9% · 37
- Two or more races4.8% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.2% · 1
Popularity
Walaa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Walaa from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 34 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Walaa 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 Walaa 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 Walaa
The name Walaa originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the word "wala," which means "loyalty" or "allegiance." It is a name that has been used in the Middle East and North Africa for centuries.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Walaa can be traced back to the 7th century CE, during the time of the Islamic Golden Age. It was a popular name among Arab scholars, poets, and warriors who valued loyalty and devotion to their faith and community.
In Islamic literature, the name Walaa is mentioned in several religious texts and historical accounts. For example, it appears in the Hadith, which are the recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. The name is often associated with virtues such as faithfulness, steadfastness, and commitment.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Walaa. One of the earliest was Walaa ibn al-Mundhir (d. 708 CE), a renowned Arab poet and warrior who fought alongside the Umayyad Caliphate during the early Islamic conquests.
Another famous bearer of the name was Walaa al-Din (1156-1233 CE), a Persian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the fields of geometry and trigonometry. His works, such as the "Al-Thamarat" and "Al-Muqni," were widely studied and influential in the Islamic world.
In the 13th century, Walaa al-Din al-Khayyat (d. 1281 CE) was a prominent Sufi mystic and scholar from Damascus. He was renowned for his teachings on spiritual enlightenment and his commentary on the works of the famous philosopher and mystic Ibn Arabi.
During the Ottoman Empire, Walaa al-Din Pasha (1519-1597 CE) was a high-ranking military commander and statesman who served as the Grand Vizier, the highest-ranking minister, under Sultan Murad III.
In more recent times, Walaa Abi Nader (1924-1977) was a renowned Lebanese poet and writer who was known for her powerful and evocative poetry, which often explored themes of love, loss, and identity.
While the name Walaa has its origins in the Arab world, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and communities around the globe, reflecting the rich diversity and spread of names across borders and civilizations.
People
Walaa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Walaa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Walaa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Walaa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 74 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Walaa 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 4,631,815 US residents.
Is Walaa a common name?
We classify Walaa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 76 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Walaa most popular?
The single biggest year for Walaa was 2001, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Walaa is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Walaa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 622 people with the name Walaa, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,634 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 Walaa 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 Walaa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walaa leans strongly female. 568 people counted with this name were female (91.3%), compared with 54 male bearers (8.7%). 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 Walaa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walaa is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Walaa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Walaa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.9% (547 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 Walaa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Walaa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Walaa 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 Walaa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Walaa 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 Walaa 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 are named Walaa?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.