Jean Auel's 1980 novel Clan of the Cave Bear gave the world Ayla, a Cro-Magnon girl adopted by Neanderthals, and the name leapt straight from paperback to birth certificate. It happened to align with the Turkish Ayla meaning halo of light around the moon, and with the Hebrew Ayla meaning oak tree, which gave the name immediate cross-cultural traction. Two soft syllables, a vowel at each end, nothing to trip a teacher on. It currently ranks 69 and is given to about one in 499 girls. The rare modern name that feels ancient by accident; half paleolithic fiction, half moonlit loanword.
Popularity
1880 to today
US SSA data. Lower rank number means more popular. A flat line at the top of the chart means the name did not rank in the top 1000.
Nicknames
No common nicknames.
Famous people
None notable in our records yet.
In fiction
No fictional associations tracked.
Sibling name ideas
- Iris
- Natalie
- Eloise
- Maria
- Ruby
Similar energy
- Iris
- Natalie
- Eloise
- Maria
- Ruby
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Names like Ayla
Iris
Rising· girl
Greek goddess of the rainbow.
Natalie
Falling· girl
Latin natalis, 'birthday' (of Christ)
Eloise
Rising· girl
French from Germanic Helewidis, 'healthy and wide'
Maria
Rising· girl
Latin form of Hebrew Miriam, 'beloved' or 'bitter'
Ruby
Steady· girl
From the ruby gemstone; Latin ruber, 'red'.