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.
Edeslee says
November 21, 2015 at 2:31 PMI noticed this post is cut off. Could you fix it when you have time? I love this name and would like to hear what you have to say about it!
Amber says
June 26, 2015 at 10:31 PMInteresting, I have never met an Aaliyah in the U.S. I had no idea it was so popular. My first encounter with the name was in association with the Middle East as an Arabic name.
Traditionally (or usually), the name is spelled Aaliyah to represent the Arabic sounds. It is not a creative spelling, as it’s following the a very common format many people use when converting the Arabic alphabet to English (there is no official standard, like Pinyin for Chinese, so variations occur; however there are some common transliterations). A double A in Arabic names spelled in the Roman alphabet represents, usually, the “A” sound as in “cat”. The “i” is used to represent the “i” sound in risk. The “ya” usually together represents a specific letter, but in this case the “yah” is representing two letters which together are making a sound. In Arabic, it is عالية, which is: عا = aa ل = l ية = yah. Short vowels (like the “i” in risk) are not written in Arabic, which is why there is nothing there for it. According to quranicnames.com (which I looked at to verify that what I remember is correct), Aaliyah is pronounced “A(fter)-LI(st)-YU(mmy)”, or with the A as in after, the L and I as in list, and the Y and U as in yummy. The stress is on the first syllable. According to the same website, it means “sublime”, and is used in the Qu’ran to mean “sublime”:
“19. As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will say, “Here, take my book and read it. 20. I knew I would be held accountable.” 21. So he will be in pleasant living. 22. In a sublime Garden. (Quran 69:19-22)”
“8. Faces on that Day will be joyful. 9. Satisfied with their endeavor. 10. In a sublime Garden. 11. In it you will hear no nonsense. 12. In it is a flowing spring. 13. In it are raised beds. 14. And cups set in place. 15. And cushions set in rows. 16. And carpets spread around. (Quran 88:8-16)”
In transliterating Arabic to the Roman alphabet, since there is no official standard, generally anything goes. People try their best. Like I said, there are commonly-used things such as a double A to mean the A as in “cat”, but still not everyone will use that, and probably not everyone even knows about those loose, unofficial standards. Due to this, there is no one way to spell this name, even though Aaliyah is the most common. Anything that looks like the right sounds works and is technically “correct”, since there is no official standard when transliterating Arabic to English.
Hope this is useful for people thinking of names for their children. =)
AshleyW419 says
December 26, 2016 at 7:07 PMMy daughter’s middle name is Aailyah. I named her after the late singer and until I read your comment, I had no idea it had any ties to ANY culture! I just assumed her parents wanted a different spelling. I’ve always been fascinated by Arabic culture. I started reading all of the Black Stallion books as a child and it just kind of grew from there lol It was actually going to be her first name, but we couldn’t find a middle name to go with it. The singer’s middle name, Dana, wasn’t exactly what we were aiming for. Anyway, my niece came home one day and said she wanted her name to be Arden. She became Arden Aaliyah from that day on. So, THANK YOU for taking the time to explain all of that because I had no idea. People are constantly asking me why I picked such an odd spelling and most of them(the older crowd) have NO idea who the hell Aaliyah was lol So again, thank you!
waltzingmorethanmatilda says
November 30, 2011 at 11:58 PMI feel like I can’t turn around without seeing an Aaliyah, Aliyah, Aliya, Alya, Alaleah or one of the thousand other variant spellings of this name!
ALIA is an acronym for the library organisation I belong to: yeah I don’t love my work THAT much!!! 😉
Sarah A says
November 30, 2011 at 10:11 PMAaliyah is pretty, but I don’t care for it that much. No offense to anyone, but the people I know with this name make it seem kind of “downmarket”.
Also, I prefer the AAH-lia pronunciation, as opposed to A-lee-ah. If I saddle our child with a name that has spelling and pronunciation issues, it will be for one that we love 🙂
i.heart.nerds says
November 30, 2011 at 8:03 AMI can never pin down if it is pronounced Ah- lee- uh or Ah- lie- uh. I have heard both. So pronunciation issues paired with spelling issues makes this name unusable for me. It is pretty though.
SkyeRhyly says
November 30, 2011 at 10:28 AMThe famous singer Aaliyah pronounced it Ah-lee-uh, I personally think it’s a really pretty name. I’m surprised it became so massive.
i.heart.nerds says
November 30, 2011 at 11:47 AMI knew about the singer, but I have met two others pronounced ah lie uh.
SkyeRhyly says
November 30, 2011 at 12:24 PMWell I’d hope ah-lie-uh would be a mispronunciation. Sounds like “a liar”, probably not the best thing to associate someone with.
Julie says
November 30, 2011 at 3:01 AMThe birth announcements in last Sunday’s paper included both an Aaliyah and an Aliyah. While our community has a good sized Muslim population… none of the parents had Arabic. I’m guessing the Aaliyah is a lot like Kaylee, if you add up all of the spelling variants it much more common than it appears. Especially if you consider the popularity of Aaliyah’s sound alikes Amelia, Malia and Leah
Aaliyah is such a pretty name, but it’s growing too rampantly for me.
Julie says
November 30, 2011 at 3:02 AM*had Arabic names.