Not to be confused with Isla, which has Scottish and Spanish origins, the name Ayla has Turkish roots, though it also boasts literary origins. Like many other short -la ending names, Ayla has seen a huge surge in popularity this century.
Ayla can be pronounced either like Kayla without the K – this is common in the US – or like Isla, which is the traditional Turkish pronunciation of the name. In most European countries, Ayla would also likely be pronounced like Isla, which is good to keep in mind if you're considering Ayla because of its international appeal or have family overseas.
Regardless of how you pronounce it, Ayla remains a beautiful option for parents of baby girls. If you've just stumbled upon this pretty girls' name, read on to learn more about Ayla's meaning, origins and recent rise in popularity. If you've already done your research and are ready to jump on the Ayla bandwagon, then scroll to the end where you can grab a personalized name sign for Baby Ayla's nursery.
The name Ayla claims a couple of possible origins and meanings. On the one hand, it's a well-known Turkish girls' name, and like many other Turkish names that begin with Ay, which means "moon" in Turkish, it's part of the special group of moon-inspired baby names. The exact Turkish meaning of Ayla is commonly given as "the halo around the moon", though if you actually plop it in an online dictionary, you're more likely to get "with the moon" as the translation.
Turkish provenance aside, Ayla also boasts literary origins, being the name of the main character in Jean M. Auel's epic book series Earth's Children. Set in Ice Age Europe inhabited by two species of early humans, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, the story follows a Cro-Magnon orphan raised by a group of Neanderthals. In the first book of the series, The Clan of the Cave Bear, the name Ayla is introduced as the Neanderthal pronunciation of the protagonist's real name, which is not revealed to the reader.
It's fun to speculate on what may have inspired Jean M. Auel to name the heroine of her prehistoric saga Ayla. Interestingly, Ayla is a homonym for the traditional Finnish girl name Eila, and also very close to the Finnish name Aila, which is pronounced like the English Isla. If you're a literary buff, you may already know that Auel is of Finnish descent – all four of her grandparents were born in Finland. Whether that led her to dream up the name Ayla, however, is anyone's guess.
In the U.S., the name Ayla first entered the Top 1000 Girl Names chart in the 1980s following the release of the movie adaptation of Auel's novel The Clan of the Cave Bear. However, it wasn't until the mid-aughts that the name really caught on.
Much of Ayla's success on the baby name charts can be credited to musician and former NCAA basketball player Ayla Brown, who was a contestant on season 5 of American Idol, which aired in 2006. In fact, the name saw its biggest year-over-year increase in the popularity rankings between 2006 and 2007, when it jumped from #664 to #265.
In 2022, Ayla entered the Top 100, marking another milestone in Ayla's fairly recent history as an American baby name.
While Brown's fame has undoubtedly fuelled Ayla's rise to baby name stardom, it's not the sole factor driving the name's popularity. Made up of the on-trend phonetic elements ay and la, Ayla perfectly captures the current zeitgeist and fits right in with 21st-century favorites like Isla, Ava and Layla.
But Ayla's similarity to names like Isla and Co. also carries a drawback: Ayla may feel more popular than it actually is, plus people may occasionally mistake it for another, perhaps more common name. For example, when pronounced the typical American way, A-luh, it may occasionally be mistaken for Ava or even the name Layla. If you pronounce it the Turkish way, EYE-luh, it becomes a homonym for the hugely popular Isla. If you have Jewish heritage, your relatives may also confuse Ayla with Ayala, a well-established Hebrew name that means "deer" or "gazelle".
Are you drawn to the name Ayla because of its moon-related meaning or its Turkish origins? Or perhaps it's the literary connotations it carries? Or maybe you simply love its soft, lilting sound? Regardless of why you want to call dibs on Ayla, our moon-themed baby name sign is perfect for adding a personal touch to Baby Ayla's nursery.
Based on an original watercolor illustration, personalized for Baby Ayla, our printable is available free of charge for parents of baby girls called Ayla as well as for those who have a family member or a friend who just named their daughter Ayla. You're not allowed to redistribute the printable digitally, nor are you allowed to use it for commercial purposes. Also, please do not directly share a link to the folder that contains the printable; however, you're more than welcome to share a link to this page. In fact, we'd be over the moon if you did (pun definitely intended)!