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Ailsa

Girls' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Ailsa has been given to 538 babies in the U.S. since 1918. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2003, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Ailsa, 2024

1 in 669,000

Ailsa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ailsa: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ailsa means

Ailsa is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Ailsa is used in Scots.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 538 girls were recorded with the name Ailsa between 1918 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 19 in 2003; its best national rank was #3,050 in 1926.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ailsa?

Ailsa had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 324,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ailsa sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ailsa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ailsas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ailsa was born before 1999 — so the typical Ailsa is around 26 today.

Median birth year
1999
About 26 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
22.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
50.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
512
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 22.9% of all recorded uses (123).

Is Ailsa rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2003 (19)
Years since peak
22
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,050
1926

Spellings of Ailsa

Ailsa is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 46.4% against Ailsa's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Ailsa around the world

Where Ailsa ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #1,892
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #140
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2008–2019
    #336
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    1997–2007
    #842
    in 2007
  • France
    1994–1994
    #3,568
    in 1994
  • Canada
    1993–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1944–2007
    #535
    in 2007

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Ailsa by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,050
1926
Peak year
2003
19 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
538
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ailsa

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AilenAilahAilieAileeAileyAilinAilynnAilishAilanaAilannyAilyAiliAiledDelsaAilisAilynAileneTulsaNilsaIlsaAilanieAilethAilaAilanni

Sibling names for Ailsa

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Ailsa

Top names of 2003, Ailsa's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1926Girls' names starting with AScottish Girl NamesScottish Names