How popular is the baby name Ali in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Ali.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Ali


Posts that Mention the Name Ali

Popular baby names in Turkey, 2021

Turkey

Turkey is transcontinental: most of the country is located in Western Asia, but a portion is located in Southeastern Europe. Turkey shares land borders with Greece and Bulgaria on the European side, and six other countries (including Armenia and Azerbaijan) on the Asian side.

In 2021, Turkey welcomed 1,079,842 babies — 48.7% were girls, 51.3% were boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Zeynep and Yusuf.

Here are Turkey’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

  1. Zeynep
  2. Elif
  3. Asel
  4. Asya
  5. Defne
  6. Nehir – means “river” in Turkish.
  7. Azra
  8. Zümra – based on the Turkish word zümrüt, meaning “emerald.”
  9. Eylül – means “September” in Turkish.
  10. Ecrin
  11. Meryem
  12. Lina
  13. Eslem
  14. Masal – means “fairy tale” in Turkish.
  15. Ebrar
  16. Elisa
  17. Ela
  18. Alya
  19. Zehra
  20. Miray
  21. Duru
  22. Hiranur
  23. Buglem
  24. Ada
  25. Yagmur – means “rain” in Turkish.
  26. Esila
  27. Ikra
  28. Öykü – means “story” in Turkish.
  29. Gökçe (pronounced gok-cheh) – based on the Turkish word gök, meaning “sky” or “blue.”
  30. Melek
  31. Günes (pronounced goo-NESH) – means “sun” in Turkish.
  32. Arya
  33. Melisa
  34. Erva
  35. Ipek – means “silk” in Turkish.
  36. Ayse
  37. Nisa
  38. Kumsal – means “beach” in Turkish.
  39. Aysima
  40. Derin
  41. Mira
  42. Fatma
  43. Sare
  44. Ahsen
  45. Eliz
  46. Deniz
  47. Beren
  48. Hümeyra
  49. Ikranur
  50. Yüsra

Boy Names

  1. Yusuf
  2. Alparslan
  3. Miraç
  4. Ömer Asaf
  5. Eymen
  6. Göktug – like Gökçe, based on the Turkish word gök (“sky,” “blue”).
  7. Ömer
  8. Mustafa
  9. Aras
  10. Ali Asaf
  11. Ahmet
  12. Ali
  13. Kerem
  14. Poyraz – means “north wind” in Turkish; ultimately based upon the ancient Greek word boreas.
  15. Hamza
  16. Muhammed
  17. Çinar
  18. Mehmet
  19. Metehan
  20. Muhammed Ali
  21. Ayaz
  22. Emir
  23. Yigit
  24. Mert
  25. Umut
  26. Yunus Emre
  27. Ibrahim
  28. Alperen
  29. Kuzey – means “north” in Turkish.
  30. Miran
  31. Deniz
  32. Berat
  33. Doruk – means “peak” or “mountaintop” in Turkish.
  34. Furkan
  35. Emirhan
  36. Hasan
  37. Hüseyin
  38. Ege
  39. Yagiz
  40. Aybars
  41. Enes
  42. Atlas
  43. Rüzgar – means “wind” in Turkish.
  44. Burak
  45. Abdullah
  46. Muhammed Emin
  47. Ertugrul
  48. Ismail
  49. Ömer Faruk
  50. Eren

The girls’ top 100 included Hazal (55th), Ece (80th), Meva (94th), and Simay (98th).

The boys’ top 100 included Efe (65th), Bugra (75th), Demir (87th), and Cihangir (90th).

Finally, here are Turkey’s 2020 rankings, if you’d like to compare.

Sources: Turkish Statistical Institute, Birth Statistics, 2021 – Turkstat, Wiktionary, Behind the Name

Popular baby names in Liechtenstein, 2021

liechtenstein

Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in Europe, is located in the Alps (sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland).

Last year, Liechtenstein welcomed 375 babies — 181 girls and 194 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emilia/Frida/Mia (3-way tie) and Elias.

Here are Liechtenstein’s top girl names and top boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

  1. Emilia, Frida/Frieda, and Mia, 4 baby girls each (3-way tie)
  2. Emma, Melina, and Sophia/Sofia, 3 each (3-way tie)
  3. Alicia, Alina, Anna, Aria, Ariana/Arianna, Aurora, Chiara, Elea, Elin, Emily, Hannah, Helena, Jana, Ladina, Leonie, Lina, Mara, Maria, Milena, Mina, and Noelia, 2 each (21-way tie)

Boy Names

  1. Elias/Elyas, 7 baby boys
  2. Louis/Luis, 6
  3. Leo, 5
  4. Noah and Paul, 4 each (tie)
  5. Leano, Luca, Mattia, Nelio, Raphael/Rafael, and Valentin, 3 each (6-way tie)
  6. Benedict/Benedikt, Benjamin, Eliah/Elijah, Eric/Erik, Gion, James, Janik, Julian, Lenny, Levin, Lionel, Lucas/Lukas, Mael, Matteo, Maximilian, Nicklas/Niklas, Oliver, and Ömer, 2 each (18-way tie)

The rest of the names were bestowed just once:

Unique girl names (118)Unique boy names (114)
Ada, Adora, Aflah, Aida, Aileen, Akila, Alessia, Alexandra, Alia, Alizée, Alma, Amalia, Ambra, Amela, Amélie, Amina, Amra, Ana, Aniko, Anila, Anina, Annika, Antonia, Asalia, Ava, Aynara, Calissa, Carla, Carmen, Catalina, Cecilia, Céline, Charlotte, Clea, Darja, Désirée, Diana, Diona, Dorothea, Dua-Lea, Ela, Elena, Elenia, Eleonora, Elif, Elina, Eline, Elise, Ena, Evi, Finja, Gabriella, Gea, Grace, Hailey, Haley, Hava, Heidi, Hindiya, Hylkije, Ina, Jara, Johanna, Josepa, Josephine, Julia, Juliana, Juna, Künkyi, Lailah, Lanah, Lara, Lea, Leila, Lelle, Lena, Leni, Lia, Liara, Lillia, Lily, Lorena, Lounah, Luisa, Malea, Marie, Maya, Mayte, Medina, Mejra, Melissa, Meryem, Mila, Mirella, Mona, Nadine, Naima, Nayla, Nevia, Niva, Nóra, Nurcan, Patrizia, Romina, Ronja, Rosa, Ruby, Sarah, Saskia, Serena, Siena, Svea, Theresia, Yara, Ylvie, Zana, Zeyneb, ZoeAaron, Adrian, Ajan, Akira, Alessio, Alexis, Ali, Alparslan, Alvaro, Ammar, Anton, Arion, Arjen, Aron, Arthur, Aurel, Aurelio, Ayman, Azad, Benno, Björn, Byron, Conradin, Dario, Dayan, Din, Eddie, Ediz, Elliot, Elvis, Emanuel, Emiel, Emil, Emilian, Erlis, Felix, Finn, Florian, Francesco, Gabriel, Gael, Grégory, Gustav, Henrik, Henry, Jakob, Jan, Jari, Jemin, Jonas, Joris, Julius, Juri, Justin, Karl, Kenan, Kian, Korab, Kunga, Laurin, Leandro, Leon, Levi, Liam, Lian, Liano, Linard, Lino, Lio, Louie, Luar, Mailo, Maleo, Malik, Marcelo, Matin, Matti, Mauro, Max, Metehan, Mikkel, Milo, Miro, Musab, Nathan, Neo, Nevio, Nils, Noam, Noar, Noel, Norden, Quentin, Richard, Rocco, Romeo, Rron, Samuel, Sandro, Santiago, Sava, Tenzin, Theo, Tiago, Tim, Timéo, Timo, Tobia, Vinzenz, Vitus, Xaver, Yakari, Yannick, Yannis

Some thoughts on a few of the above…

  • Künkyi and Tenzin are Tibetan.
  • Nevia and Nevio are Italian. They derive from the Roman family name Naevius, which was based on the Latin word naevus, meaning “birthmark” or “mole (on the body).”
  • Rron is an Albanian. It was created from the word rronj, a dialectal form of rroj, which means “to live, to survive.”

Finally, here’s a link to Liechtenstein’s 2020 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Source: Neugeborenennamen 2021 – Statistikportal Liechtenstein

Popular baby names in Azerbaijan, 2021

azerbaijan

According to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Justice, the most popular baby names in the country last year were Zahra and Ali.

Here are Azerbaijan’s top 5 girl names and top 5 boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

  • Zahra
  • Zeynab
  • Maryam
  • Fatima
  • Aylin

Boy Names

  • Ali
  • Yusif
  • Huseyn
  • Ugur
  • Mahammad

I’ve never published a set of rankings for Azerbaijan before, but I did write a post in early 2016 that mentioned that the top baby names in the country at that time were Fatima and Zeyneb (for girls) and Ali, Hasan, and Huseyn (for boys).

Source: Top baby names in Azerbaijan for last year announced (Azeri-Press Agency)

Name quotes #105: Barra, Dhani, Hellion

double quotation mark

From comedian Ali Wong’s 2016 stand-up special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (vid):

I’m just waiting for the right moment to, like, become a housewife, financially, you know? I want my husband to get us to, like, a certain point financially. I wanna get to the point as a couple where I can comfortably afford sliced mango. Know what I’m talking about? I’m talking about that Whole Foods mango. That $10-a-box Whole Foods mango that was sliced by white people. That’s the kind of income bracket I’m striving for. That’s when you know you’ve made it, when you’re eating mango that was sliced by a dude named Noah. I want Noah mango, Rebecca kiwi, Danielle pineapple.

From an article about how Storm Barra (which hit the UK and Ireland in December of 2021) came to be named after BBC Northern Ireland weatherman Barra Best:

‘What happened was the head of Irish weather service Met Eireann called me in August and asked me where my name was from and I thought it was a bit strange, I didn’t know why she was asking,’ [Barra Best] told the BBC’s Evening Extra programme.

‘It comes from the south-west of Ireland from Finbarr, St Finbarr in Co Cork and it’s derived from that.’

He continued: ‘She said oh that’s fine, that’s fine. I asked why did you want to know and she said oh you’ll find out in about a month.

‘Of course the email came out and the list of names were announced and she had decided to put my name in there.’

On the origin of the name of George Harrison’s son, Dhani, from The Beatles Encyclopedia (2014) by Kenneth Womack:

Born on August 1, 1978, in Windsor, England, Dhani Harrison is the only son of Harrison and his second wife Olivia Trinidad Arias. His unusual name is a composite of the sixth and seventh notes of the Indian music scale — “dha” and “ni.”

From a 2012 interview with actor Crispin Glover, who goes by his full name, Crispin Hellion Glover, as a filmmaker:

SP: When did you begin using ‘Hellion’ as part of your name? Why the addition?

CHG: I began using “Hellion” as my middle name at birth. I was born in New York. Not too long before I was born, my parents went to see an off-Broadway production of Henry V, by Shakespeare and liked the production very much, and liked the name [Crispin, from the St. Crispin’s Day Speech] so [they] gave it to me. My father’s middle name is Herbert. He never liked his middle name Herbert. So as a young struggling actor in New York he would say to himself, “I am Bruce H. Glover, Bruce Hellion Glover. I am a hellion, a troublemaker.” And that would make him feel good. He told my mother this was his real middle name. When they were married she saw him writing on the marriage certificate Bruce Herbert Glover and she thought, “Who am I marrying?” They gave Hellion to me as my real middle name. I had always written and drawn as a child and I would always sign my drawing and writing with my whole name Crispin Hellion Glover. When I started acting professionally at 13, which was something I had decided on my own I could do as a profession at a relatively young age, it became apparent that I had to choose a professional acting name for SAG. I thought my whole name was too long for acting and just used my first and last name. When I started publishing my books I simply continued using the name I had always used for writing and drawing and had put in my books. This is also why I use my whole name for my own films.

On the origin of Harry S. Truman’s given names, from the book Truman (1992) by David McCullough:

In a quandary over a middle name, [parents] Mattie and John were undecided whether to honor her father or his. In the end they compromised with the letter S. It could be taken to stand for Solomon or Shipp, but actually stood for nothing, a practice not unknown among the Scotch-Irish, even for first names. The baby’s first name was Harry, after his Uncle Harrison.

(Ulysses S. Grant likewise had a single-letter middle.)

From an article about the increasing popularity of Maori baby names in New Zealand, published in The Guardian (found via Clare’s tweet):

Damaris Coulter of Ngati Kahu descent and Dale Dice of Ngati Hine, Te Aupouri and Nga Puhi [descent] […] [gave] their one-year-old daughter Hinekorako just one name, as was usual pre-colonisation.

Hinekorako’s name came to Dice as he was navigating a waka, a large traditional Maori sailing vessel, from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands back to Aotearoa. “It was coming up to midnight. We came into a little storm. The temperature had dropped … there was thunder … Once we got through the storm we all turned around and just behind us there was this massive white rainbow … It was a lunar rainbow.”

“I told our navigator about it and he goes’ “oh yeah, that’s a tohu (sign), that’s Hinekorako’.” In myth, Hinekorako is also a taniwha (a water spirit), who lives between the spirit and living worlds. Dice wrote the name in his diary and decided that night, were he to ever have a daughter, she would be named Hinekorako.

(According to Encyclopedia Mythica, Hine-korako is “the personification of the lunar bow or halo.”)