Name Awesome

Ilai

#4,447 in 2025Boys' name

Possibly to ascend

Ilai has been given to 253 babies in the U.S. since 2005. In 2025 it ranked #4,447 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 40 recorded.

Babies named Ilai, 2025

1 in 144,000

Ilai over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ilai: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to ascend

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ilai means

Ilai may mean “to ascend”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 253 boys were recorded with the name Ilai between 2005 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 40 in 2023; its best national rank was #3,078 in 2023.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #9,944 in 2020 to #4,447 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,464 in 2015 to #4,447 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.

How common is Ilai?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 144,000
23 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 74,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,447
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
99,910 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ilai sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 99,910 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ilai. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ilais were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ilai was born before 2021 — so the typical Ilai is around 4 today.

Median birth year
2021
About 4 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
53.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
253
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 53.8% of all recorded uses (136).

Is Ilai 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
+168
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+5,497
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+2,017
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.77×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
57.5%
Peak was 2023 (40)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
41.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,078
2023

Spellings of Ilai

Ilai is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 26.9% against Ilai's 0.02%.

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 Ilai is used

Across 1910–2025, Ilai was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 880,400 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Ilai has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ilai around the world

Where Ilai 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
    2007–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • France
    2006–2025
    #5,379
    in 2025

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Ilai by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,447
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 5,497
Best rank ever
#3,078
2023
Peak year
2023
40 that year
First recorded
2005
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
253
Count in 2025
23

Names similar to Ilai

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

IlayElaiIlarioKalaiIlanAdlaiIlamIlaNickolaiAtlaiNicolaiLaiAbdulaiNicholaiIlaanAlaiKallaiNikolaiNikkolaiMikolaiNikholai

Sibling names for Ilai

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 Ilai

Top names of 2023, Ilai's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2023Boys' names starting with I