Aila
- Pronunciation
- [Ai-la]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- From The Strong Place
- Origin
- Scottish
About the Name Aila
Aila is a Scottish girls' name traditionally read as "from the strong place," giving it a grounded, resilient character. Short, soft, and almost entirely vowel-led, it sits comfortably within the modern taste for streamlined, lyrical names while carrying a meaning rooted in strength and place. The related form Ailey is recorded as a variant, offering a slightly longer alternative.
The name's appeal lies in its gentle, two-syllable flow ("Ai-la") paired with its sturdy meaning — a combination of delicacy in sound and solidity in sense. It belongs to the broad wave of airy, vowel-rich girls' names that have surged in recent years, but its Scottish heritage and "strong place" meaning give it a distinct identity rather than relying on sound alone.
In the United States, Aila is a fresh arrival to the popularity charts. It first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2019 and reached its peak in 2021 at rank #752. It has climbed and held in the upper-middle of the list since — recorded at #796 in 2022, #769 in 2023, and #793 in 2024 with 354 births — and across this short window it accounts for 2,015 top-1000 births. Its recent rise tracks the wider American enthusiasm for soft, minimalist girls' names. For parents, Aila offers the best of both worlds — a fashionable, airy sound paired with a meaning rooted in strength and place — making it feel delicate yet grounded, current yet not without substance, and easy to pair with a wide range of surnames.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Aila
US Popularity History (2019–2025)
Annual US births named Aila by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2021 with 378 girls named Aila (girl rank #752 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #827 for girls (329 US births). That's 75 places below its 2021 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Aila Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Aila the strongest states are Hawaii, Connecticut, Nevada.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #94 | 44 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #476 | 18 |
| 3 | Nevada | #491 | 16 |
| 4 | Oregon | #521 | 28 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | #567 | 26 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #579 | 73 |
| 7 | Utah | #598 | 24 |
| 8 | Washington | #624 | 98 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #633 | 63 |
| 10 | California | #683 | 346 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio | #952 | 28 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | #870 | 42 |
| 3 | North Carolina | #869 | 61 |
| 4 | Texas | #867 | 106 |
| 5 | Florida | #855 | 74 |
| 6 | Georgia | #836 | 56 |
| 7 | Tennessee | #823 | 32 |
| 8 | New Jersey | #822 | 51 |
| 9 | Arizona | #820 | 30 |
| 10 | New York | #800 | 141 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Aila in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailey | Light | Female | Irish |
Looking for names like Aila?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Aila to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Aila against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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