girl's name
Ailbhe
AL-vuh
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 100 (Ireland)
- Births on record 2,667
Ireland
#50
2025 births
Ailbhe is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "white" or "bright," historically used for both sexes. It ranks 50th in Ireland and belongs to a saint said to have been raised by a she-wolf.
- Ailbhe is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in Ireland in 2023, when 118 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in Ireland.
- Today about 1 in 472 babies in Ireland is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1964.
Ailbhe over time
Births per decade in Ireland, 1960s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1960s | 11 |
| 1970s | 111 |
| 1980s | 243 |
| 1990s | 365 |
| 2000s | 495 |
| 2010s | 625 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 562 |
What Ailbhe means
Ailbhe means white or bright, from an Irish element albho. The color word carries a sense of brilliance rather than pallor, which is why bright is as good a translation as white.
Where Ailbhe comes from
Ailbhe comes from the Irish albho, white, from an older Celtic root that also underlies Albion and the Alps and means roughly white or high. It was a men's name for most of its recorded history — Ailbhe of Emly is a saint said to predate Patrick in Munster, whose legend has him abandoned at birth and suckled by a she-wolf, a story that repeats the Romulus and Remus pattern too neatly to be taken as history. A female Ailbhe appears in the Fenian Cycle as one of Fionn mac Cumhaill's wives. Modern Irish use is almost entirely for girls, which reverses the historical balance, and this is one of a small set of Irish names — Ailbhe, Aoife, Saoirse — where the modern gender assignment has settled differently from the medieval one. The spelling is stable in Irish; there is no accepted anglicization, which has kept the name at home.
Ailbhe in use
Ailbhe ranks 50th in Ireland with 95 births in 2025 and 97th in Northern Ireland, and it is rising in our data with a peak in 2023. Our records carry it from 1964, the earliest year our Irish data reaches, so the name may well be older in use than our figures show. Outside the island it is very rare: 1,512th in England and Wales, 798th in Scotland.
How popular is Ailbhe?
In 2025, Ailbhe was given to 95 babies in Ireland, ranking #50 that year. It is one of the most popular names in Ireland.
Where Ailbhe is used
Irish figures withhold any name given to fewer than three babies in a year, so a gap means the name fell below that floor rather than went unused. The Central Statistics Office began recording the síneadh fada in 2018, so accented and unaccented spellings are counted separately from that year on. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Ailbhe
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Ailbhe also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Ailbhe over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Ailbhe in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Ailbhe
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Ailbhe — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Ailbhe
What does the name Ailbhe mean?
Ailbhe means "white" or "bright," from the Irish albho.
How do you pronounce Ailbhe?
AL-vuh. The bh gives a v sound.
Is Ailbhe a boy's or a girl's name?
Historically it was mostly a boy's name. Modern Irish use is almost entirely for girls.
How popular is Ailbhe?
Fiftieth in Ireland and 97th in Northern Ireland.
Is Ailbhe a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Ailbhe currently ranks #50 in Ireland. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.