Image by mag3737 via Flickr

She’s a regal Arabic appellation boosted by an ill-fated recording artist.

Thanks to Alia for suggesting Aaliyah as our Baby Name of the Day.

Aaliyah’s double a seems inauthentic, especially when coupled with her y and h, hallmarks of kreativ respellings.  But she’s a valid transcription of an Arabic name, from the masculine moniker Aali or Ali, meaning lofty.

Aliyah is also seen, and it is the preferred spelling for a Hebrew word meaning ascent.  Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages, and the similarities are many.  But in Hebrew, aliyah refers to the right of Jews to return Israel as a fulfillment of God’s promise.  To immigrate to Israel is “to make aliyah.”  While aliyah is a Hebrew word, Aliyah does not seem to be a given name.

But what about the spare Alia? This was the spelling preferred by Alia al-Hussein, the former Queen of Jordan.  A native Jordanian with a globe-trotting resume thanks to her diplomat dad, Alia married King Hussein of Jordan in 1972.  She was high profile from the moment she took on the role of queen consort, working with charities and pressing for voting rights for women.  She died in a tragic helicopter crash in 1977, but a number of her initiatives live on.

Alia starts to surface almost immediately.  There’s a character called Alia on a 1973 episode of Hawaii 5-0.  The 1984 big screen adaptation of Frank Hebert’s Dune introduced Alia Atreides, little sister of main character Paul.  By 1995, Alia appeared at the fringes of the US Top 1000.

Dune fans will quickly recognize one thing more: the original novel debuted in 1965, and was a quick success.  There are plenty of Arabic words and Islamic references in the work, suggesting that Alia was an intentional choice by an author familiar with not only the language, but the more subtle meanings attached to the name.

And yet Alia is an almost inevitable construction, as tough to pin down as Allie, Alisa, or Alina.  There are simply some sounds that work as given names in English.  If you’ve ever heard Donny Iris‘ 1980 pop hit Ah! Leah!, it is easy to hear the refrain as Aleah.

Speaking of popular music, the key to the success of Aaliyah is undeniably a singer, one who rose to prominence before she had her driver’s license.  Born Aaliyah Haughton in 1979, she signed with Jive Records at the age of 12.  Her first album went double platinum.

It wasn’t a fluke, either.  Aaliyah continued to record hit singles, and also tried her hand at acting.  She racked up a Grammy nomination before dying in a plane crash in the Bahamas.  She was just 22.

Variant spellings abound, but the songstress has propelled her version to the top spot.  Aaliyah debuted in 1994 at a sky-high #202, and she’s been in the Top 100 since 2001.  In 2010, the various spellings charted like this:

• Aaliyah #56
• Aliyah #143
• Aleah #455
• Aliya #654
• Alia #730
• Aleigha #994

Factor in the success of nouveau coinage Alivia and a desire for names representing a perspective that isn’t exclusively Western European, and choices like Alia and company are inevitable.  Jean M. Auel called the heroine of her 1980 novel Clan of the Cave Bear Ayla.  But certainly the extraordinary tale of a talented performer is part of this story, too.  She also makes the most elaborate version of the name the most familiar.

If you’re looking for an Arabic name that imports into English flawlessly, Aaliyah is an option – as long as you don’t mind the potential spelling hassles.