Ali

surname · Urdu · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Ali is a surname, most frequently recorded in Bangladesh, where it is the 20th most common surname. It appears chiefly in Urdu and Hindi, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: Muslim surname from Arabic ʿAlī, literally ‘high, lofty’, one of the 99 names of God.

rarermore common
  • KMComoros1 in 12◐
  • YEYemen1 in 37
  • TTTrinidad & Tobago1 in 39

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈1.4M ●

across 9 countries

#267 ●

of 21M surnames

6 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
476 ●

28M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 351 ◐

Norway

Spellings & scripts●

AliLatin · English●3M records
AliArabic · Persian●1 records
АлиCyrillic · Russian●231K records
ᲐლიGeorgian · Georgian●6K records
알리Hangul · Korean●10 records
ԱլիArmenian · Armenian●3 records

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Али in KZ Kazakhstan, RU Russia, KG Kyrgyzstan, Aeli in BR Brazil, Əli in AZ Azerbaijan and Алі in UA Ukraine.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Muslim surname from Arabic ʿAlī, literally ‘high, lofty’, one of the 99 names of God.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Ali is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BD Bangladesh#202,203,34529 rec.——Ali6
IN India#2831,273,380△267K rec.1 in 1K1.3MAli217
SY Syria#1307,616819K rec.——Ali80
TR Türkiye#127238,03024M rec.—736KAli178
RU Russia—214,204183K rec.—#90Али151
EG Egypt#3204,763151K rec.——Ali202
PK Pakistan#39158,91656K rec.——Ali171
SA Saudi Arabia#2136,13971K rec.——Ali213
GB United Kingdom#20186,511134K rec.—5Ali209
NG Nigeria#3075,511131K rec.——Ali96
YE Yemen#467,03322K rec.——Ali101
US United States#65460,002823K rec.1 in 5.5K121KAli476

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Urdu4.5M20%
  • Hindi4.2M19%
  • 3.8M17%
  • Bangla3.1M14%
  • English3M14%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Urdu4,472,84120%
Hindi4,191,49919%
3,773,08817%
Bangla3,143,28114%
English3,046,63614%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ali is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate surname4.5M records spelled Ali26 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Pakistan, United States, Ethiopia

    Also written 'Ali, Alì, Ali', Alí, 'Alī

  • Swahili surname1.8M records spelled Ali5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Nigeria, United States, Kenya

    Languages: Swahili, Yoruba

    Also written 'Ali

  • Indonesian surname868K records spelled Ali58 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Ali', 'Ali, Àli, Áli, A'Li

  • Spanish surname658K records spelled Ali78 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, Spain, India, United States

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Alí, Alì, A'Li, Älï, Äli

  • French surname631K records spelled Ali130 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Spain, India, Belgium

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Ally, Àli, Onela, Alí, Ãlï

  • Telugu surname151K records spelled Ali14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India

    Also written Alo, అలీ, ఆలా, ఆలీ, అలి

  • Amharic surname59K records spelled Ali11 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, United States

    Also written አሊ, Alex, ዓሊ, Aali, Álex

114 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ali is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • Toledo, Alexandria, Buenos Aires; expelled from Spain 1492

    as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

  • In Arabic, high, lofty, sublime, eminent, excellence, noble, honourable; one of the names of Allah; fourth Caliph of Islam; name of the Prophet Muhammad's cousin & son-in-law

    as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names

  • In Arabic, ‘elevated, exalted’; also the name of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.

    as a nameAfrican Muslim Names

  • A disciple of The Prophet Mohammed; (highly

    as a nameA Handbook of African Names

  • In Arabic, Highest

    as a nameThe book of African names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

0501001501850190019502000144 · 1960

Show as table
Ali in ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search), Kosovo, 1809–2025
Yearrecords
18091
18711
18782
18791
18833
18844
18854
18872
18886
18892
18909
18912
18924
18935
18947
18955
18966
18974
189810
18994
190021
19017
190214
190312
190414
190518
190616
190721
190831
190922
191020
191111
191216
191320
191410
191524
19168
191727
191820
191920
192044
192124
192222
192328
192422
192524
192620
192737
192854
192955
193060
193160
193257
193363
193479
193581
193666
193777
193886
193985
194091
194169
194280
1943103
194489
194594
194672
1947104
1948104
194992
1950117
195189
195293
1953111
1954117
1955119
1956129
195791
1958135
1959114
1960144
1961126
1962106
1963119
1964112
1965110
1966104
1967128
1968111
1969113
1970106
1971127
1972130
1973108
1974114
1975135
1976126
1977110
197882
197993
198099
198173
198287
198384
198466
198585
198687
198779
198871
198963
199054
199154
199261
199357
199437
199546
199650
199755
199841
199949
200057
200153
200231
200354
200433
200536
200636
200744
200850
200948
201035
201144
201245
201335
201442
201537
201626
201747
201828
201932
202022
202130
202223
202326
202419
202520

XK ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) — 146 years between 1809–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Turgut Reis, b. 1485Hyder Ali, b. 1717Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, b. 1905Muhammad Ali, b. 1942Tariq Ali, b. 1943Ayaan Hirsi Ali, b. 1969Mahershala Ali, b. 1974Laila Ali, b. 1977Tatyana Ali, b. 1979Nadia Ali, b. 1980
  • Turgut Reisb. 1485TRnot in their usual nameOttoman corsair, naval commander, and governor (1485–1565)
  • Hyder Alib. 1717INMilitary commander, de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore (1720-1782)
  • Chaudhry Muhammad Alib. 1905PKpolitician and Prime minister of Pakistan (1905–1982)
  • Muhammad Alib. 1942USAmerican boxer (1942–2016)
  • Tariq Alib. 1943PKBritish political activist, writer, and historian (born 1943)
  • Ayaan Hirsi Alib. 1969NLDutch-American political activist and author
  • Mahershala Alib. 1974USAmerican actor
  • Laila Alib. 1977USAmerican television personality and retired professional boxer
  • Tatyana Alib. 1979USAmerican actress and singer
  • Nadia Alib. 1980USAmerican singer-songwriter

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 182 sources across 97 countries.

Official registers attesting Ali
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—1.3M#20
TR TürkiyeTÜİK NIP — most used given names2025736K#4
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202085K#366
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201060K#559
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202056K#735
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—37K#111
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200036K#876
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)202431K#79
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202016K—
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—16K#37
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—15K#432
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202013K#735

Reference works 8

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 2,007 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ali?
We estimate roughly 1.4 million people bear Ali (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.
In which country does Ali have the most bearers?
Ali is most frequently recorded in Bangladesh, where it is most often spelled ali.
How common is Ali compared with other names?
In Bangladesh, Ali is the 20th most common surname of 11,292 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Ali mean?
Recorded meaning: Muslim surname from Arabic ʿAlī, literally ‘high, lofty’, one of the 99 names of God.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ali

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ali” — the 20th most common surname in Bangladesh. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Ali parses inside a full name →