# Ali (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/ali/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys and girls |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Meaning | “high”, “exalted” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɑːli/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Aly, Alee |
| US babies named this | 44,888 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 34,383 / 10,505 (23% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 11,877, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Arabic عَلِيّ (ʕaliyy, literally “high, exalted”), from the Arabic root ع ل ي (ʕ l y).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 391 | 710 |
| 2012 | 307 | 865 |
| 2013 | 251 | 996 |
| 2014 | 240 | 1,068 |
| 2015 | 190 | 1,280 |
| 2016 | 154 | 1,485 |
| 2017 | 118 | 1,770 |
| 2018 | 111 | 1,830 |
| 2019 | 130 | 1,629 |
| 2020 | 93 | 2,006 |
| 2021 | 103 | 1,911 |
| 2022 | 88 | 2,157 |
| 2023 | 74 | 2,416 |
| 2024 | 71 | 2,508 |
| 2025 | 44 | 3,463 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 803 | 372 |
| 2012 | 872 | 352 |
| 2013 | 902 | 351 |
| 2014 | 1,011 | 334 |
| 2015 | 1,061 | 325 |
| 2016 | 1,087 | 322 |
| 2017 | 1,116 | 310 |
| 2018 | 1,094 | 310 |
| 2019 | 1,069 | 314 |
| 2020 | 1,017 | 324 |
| 2021 | 958 | 339 |
| 2022 | 1,124 | 301 |
| 2023 | 1,066 | 311 |
| 2024 | 1,066 | 323 |
| 2025 | 1,116 | 306 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 3 | 3,900 |
| 2005 | 3 | 4,798 |
| 2008 | 3 | 5,545 |
| 2012 | 3 | 5,876 |
| 2014 | 4 | 4,684 |
| 2015 | 3 | 5,730 |
| 2024 | 3 | 5,891 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 417 | 144 |
| 2012 | 440 | 139 |
| 2013 | 428 | 137 |
| 2014 | 458 | 132 |
| 2015 | 425 | 137 |
| 2016 | 452 | 133 |
| 2017 | 453 | 130 |
| 2018 | 428 | 133 |
| 2019 | 444 | 128 |
| 2020 | 396 | 141 |
| 2021 | 399 | 141 |
| 2022 | 384 | 144 |
| 2023 | 416 | 129 |
| 2024 | 500 | 106 |
| 2025 | 502 | 103 |

## In other languages

- Arabic: عَلِيّ
- Chinese: 阿里
- Dutch: Ali
- Esperanto: Eljo
- Finnish: Ali
- French: Ali
- German: Ali
- Hebrew: עֵלִי
- Hindi: अली
- Italian: Alì
- Japanese: アリ
- Korean: 알리
- Polish: Ali
- Portuguese: Ali
- Russian: Али́
- Spanish: Alí
- Turkish: Ali
- Ukrainian: Алі́

## People named Ali

- Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, 4th Rashidun Caliph (r. 656–661) and first Shia Imam
- Ali Larter, American actress and model (born 1976)
- Ali al-Rida, eighth of the Twelve Shia Imams (766–818)
- Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Arab historian, writer, poet and musicologist (897–967)
- Ali Pasha, Albanian ruler (1740–1822)
- Ali Smith, British author and journalist
- Ali Fethi Okyar, 2nd Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey (1880–1943)
- Ali Wong, American comedian and actress (born 1982)
- Ali ibn Yusuf, 5th Almoravid king
- Ali Kafi, Algerian politician (1928-2013)
- Ali Krieger, American soccer player
- Ali Maâloul, Egypt association football player

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.