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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: of mixed originIn Israel: falling

AyaIn Hebrew: איה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: אַיָּהRomanization: aya

Aya (Hebrew: איה) is a girl's name of mixed origin. 13,625 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 182 girls and ranked #110. Its peak year was 2002, with 595 babies.

People in Israel
13,625
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
182
rank #110
Peak year
2002
595 babies
USA, 2025
449
rank #644

Writing and saying Aya

In Hebrew letters the name is איה, read right to left. Aya is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "aya" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a female given name
From Proto-Semitic *ʔayy-; אַי ('ay, “where”) + ־ֵה (e, “hē paragogicum”).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Aya by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Aya: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Aya in English-speaking countries

Aya in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025449#6442024 (469)
United Kingdom2025221#2352025 (221)
England and Wales2025212#2212025 (212)
Scotland20259#3592019 (9)
Ireland20257#4732024 (12)
British Columbia20239#3482021 (12)
Alberta202527#1492025 (27)
Quebec202569#822006 (104)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Aya has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Aya

How do you write Aya in Hebrew?

Aya is written איה in Hebrew (with vowel points: אַיָּה). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "aya".

How many people in Israel are named Aya?

13,625 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name איה: 13,625 women and 0 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Aya a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 100.0% of the people named איה are women.

What does the name Aya mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a female given name" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *ʔayy-; אַי ('ay, “where”) + ־ֵה (e, “hē paragogicum”).

Is Aya used outside Israel?

The name Aya appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 449 girls were given it in 2025 (#644), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 221 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.