Ali

Where Ali comes from

From Arabic عَلِيّ (ʕaliyy, literally “high, exalted”), from the Arabic root ع ل ي (ʕ l y).
— Wiktionary's entry for Ali
  • Arabic
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1914
    First appearance
    #3,264 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1939
    Ali Khamenei born
    Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 to 2026
  3. 1947
    Ali Abdullah Saleh born
    President of North Yemen (1978–1990) and Yemen
  4. 2022
    Peak, #301
    1,124 babies named Ali — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Arabic.
  • A diminutive of the female given name Alison or of its variants.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Alistair or of its variants.
Namesakes
  • Ali Khamenei · Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 to 2026, 1939–2026
  • Ali Abdullah Saleh · President of North Yemen (1978–1990) and Yemen, 1947–2017
  • Ali Bongo Ondimba · President of Gabon, born 1959
  • Ali Larter · American actress and model, born 1976
  • Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-'Abidin · Great-grandson of Muhammad and the fourth of the Shiite Imams, 659–713

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.