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Alayah

#412 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Aaliyah

Alayah has been given to 12,228 babies in the U.S. since 1992. In 2025 it ranked #412 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2020, with 1,136 recorded.

Babies named Alayah, 2025

1 in 4,390

Alayah over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05001K1.5K18801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alayah: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Aaliyah

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Alayah means

Alayah is a variant of Aaliyah.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Alayah → Aaliyah → عَالِيَة → عَالٍ. The family’s meaning is “high, tall”, recorded in Arabic with the source elements عَالٍ.

Origin, language, and formation

Alayah is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Aaliyah.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,228 girls were recorded with the name Alayah between 1992 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 1,136 in 2020; its best national rank was #278 in 2020.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #278 in 2020 to #412 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #572 in 2015 to #412 in 2025.

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 Alayah?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 4,390
756 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 2,130
0.05% of girls
Rank, 2025
#412
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
3,041 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alayah 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 2025 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 1002%
School of 50011%

Put another way: gather 3,041 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alayah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alayahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alayah was born before 2019 — so the typical Alayah is around 6 today.

Median birth year
2019
About 6 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
97.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
12,228
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.5% of all recorded uses (5,316).

Is Alayah 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
+4
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−134
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+160
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.41×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
66.5%
Peak was 2020 (1,136)
Years since peak
5
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#278
2020

Spellings of Alayah

Alayah is not the most common spelling — Aaliyah is, with 16.1% against Alayah's 1.8%.

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.

Where Alayah is used

Across 2016–2025, Alayah was most concentrated in New Mexico — about 1 in 735 girls, against 1 in 1,712 across all states with data. It was least common in Utah (1 in 8,333).

12136 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Mexico1 in 735
  2. 2Mississippi1 in 980
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 990
  4. 4Michigan1 in 1,087
  5. 5Georgia1 in 1,149
  6. 6Alabama1 in 1,163
  7. 7Nevada1 in 1,190
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 1,235

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Geographically, Alayah is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 28% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Alayah around the world

Where Alayah 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
    1997–2025
    #388
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2020–2025
    #474
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2019–2025
    #259
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2014–2025
    #608
    in 2025
  • France
    2017–2025
    #2,839
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2001–2024
    #963
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2006–2006
    #782
    in 2006

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.

Notable people named Alayah

People whose public names include Alayah, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Alayah by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#412
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 134
Best rank ever
#278
2020
Peak year
2020
1,136 that year
First recorded
1992
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
12,228
Count in 2025
756

Names similar to Alayah

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

AlaiyahAlannaAlayaAlanahAlaynaAlaiaAlaniAlannahAlanisAriyahAlaiyaAlainaAlaysiaAmiyahAlauraAlaylaAlasiaJaliyahAmayahKaliyahJaniyahAlaineAniyahMaliyah

Names with a curve like Alayah

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Alayah, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AzaleaLeightonEmoryCharliEliannaHarlowSelahLorelaiEsmeKoraJulietaGracelynn

Sibling names for Alayah

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 Alayah

Top names of 2020, Alayah's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2020Girls' names starting with A