Arabic aliyah, "high, exalted" — exalted; sublime. Also a Hebrew word for the ascent to Israel; the singer Aaliyah made the spelling standard in America.
Aaliyah ranks 101st among American girls in 2025, with 2,607 born that year. Its best year was 2012, when 5,530 babies were given the name, ranking 36th. The typical living American called Aaliyah is about 14 years old today. It is relatively most common in Delaware, where it accounts for 0.25% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.