girl's name
Aliya
ah-LEE-ah
- Origin Arabic
- Gender Girl
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 23,037
the United States
#825
2025 births
Aliya is a girl's name of Hebrew and Arabic origin meaning "ascent" or "exalted," arrived at separately in the two languages. It ranks 159th in France and 825th in the United States, and it is stable.
- Aliya is a name of Arabic origin.
- Peaked in 2012, when 483 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 10,047 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1971.
Aliya over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1970s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1970s | 257 |
| 1980s | 391 |
| 1990s | 1,151 |
| 2000s | 3,764 |
| 2010s | 3,550 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,962 |
What Aliya means
Aliya means ascent in Hebrew and exalted in Arabic. The roots are cognate at a deep Semitic level but the two names entered European use separately, so neither borrowed the sense from the other.
Where Aliya comes from
Aliya reaches modern use from two Semitic languages independently. The Hebrew aliyah is the noun for going up: it names both the migration of Jews to Israel and the honor of being called up to read the Torah in synagogue. The Arabic Aliya is the feminine of Ali, exalted or lofty — one of the names of God and the name of the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, whose line the Shia follow. Aliya is also a common name in Central Asia and among Tatars and Kazakhs, where Aliya Moldagulova, a sniper killed in 1944 and made a Hero of the Soviet Union, is a national figure. French, British and American registers hold Aliya, Aliyah, Aaliyah and Alya as separate entries, which spreads a demand considerably larger than any single spelling shows.
Aliya in use
Aliya ranks 159th in France with about 340 births in 2025 and 825th in the United States, and it is stable in our data with a peak in 2012. Our records carry it from 1971. It appears in every market we hold except Northern Ireland — 503rd in England and Wales, 488th in Scotland, 569th in Ireland — which is broad reach for a name with no single home country.
How popular is Aliya?
In 2025, Aliya was given to 330 babies in the United States, ranking #825 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Aliya is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Aliya is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Alïya | Alïya is a rare spelling of Aliya, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 20 times, mostly in France. | 20 |
| Âliya | Âliya is a rare spelling of Aliya, written with a circumflex and recorded about 15 times, mostly in France. | 15 |
Names that peaked alongside Aliya
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Aliya also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Aliya over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Aliya 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 Aliya
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Aliya — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Aliya
What does the name Aliya mean?
Ascent in Hebrew, exalted in Arabic. The two languages arrived at it separately.
What does aliyah mean in Hebrew?
Going up — used both for migration to Israel and for being called up to read the Torah.
Is Aliya the same as Aaliyah?
They are spellings of the same sound, counted separately in every register we hold.
How popular is Aliya?
159th in France and 825th in the United States.
Is Aliya a girl's or a boy's name?
Aliya is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Aliya a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Aliya currently ranks #159 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.