Alja

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Aliya in IN India, US United States, PK Pakistan and 6 more, Alya in TR Türkiye, MY Malaysia, SY Syria and 4 more, Алия in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, KG Kyrgyzstan and 3 more and Aleya in ES Spain, BD Bangladesh.

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●

Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

Alja is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Finnish given name306 records spelled Alja3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, United States, Netherlands

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Aljä

• Arabic given name181 records spelled Alja4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Morocco, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia

  Also written Al-Ja, Äljä, Ălja

• a separate given name69 records spelled Alja2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Slovenia, United States

  Also written Älja

33 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●

Alja is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In got, romanization of 𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latvian, Amerikas latviešu jaunatnes apvienība

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

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●

SI SURS — Najpogostejša imena in priimki (population register) — 33 years between 1992–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Alja Robinson Crookb. 1864USAmerican geologist
• Alja Verdonckb. 1969BEBelgian creator
• Alja Bronswijkb. 1975NLDutch creator (born 1975)
• Alja Videtič Paskab. 1980SIresearcher
• Alyab. 1983SInot in their usual nameSlovene singer
• Alja Varagićb. 1990SISlovenian female handball player
• Alja Krušičb. 1996SISlovenian singer
• Alja KupecSIresearcher
• Alja PlošnikSIresearcher
• Alja StvarnikSIresearcher

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 114 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Alja?

We estimate roughly 104 thousand people bear Alja (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Alja have the most bearers?

Alja is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled алия.

How common is Alja compared with other names?

In Russia, Alja is the 137th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Alja a male or female name?

Alja is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Alja mean?

Recorded meaning: third-person singular single-possession possessive of alj