Presented by

The first name 
Ali

Ali is a unisex first name, but it has been given primarily to boys for a number of years.

Ali known and loved in the US!

The name Ali is not currently one of the fashionable names trending in the top 10 rankings, but it is still popular and common. Recently, it has consistently ranked among the top 1,000 most popular first names in the United States. It is currently #573 in the SmartGenius ranking.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Ali

What does the name 
Ali mean?

Ali is an old Arabic name that means ‘sublíme, noble, high’. Unlike most other cases, Ali is a given name that later became a surname as well.

In some languages,... for example Finnish, Ali is a diminutive of Alexander.

Many famous people have the name Ali

A professional boxer and activist

Muhamma Ali (1942 - 2016)
The exceptional sportsman is probably one of the best-known Ali, even if it was only his surname. Nicknamed »The Greatest« it doesn't come as a suprise that the famous heavyweight boxer was voted »Sportsman of the Century« in 1999.

fairytale figure

Ali Baba
Even those who are not familiar with the collection of stories »Tales of the thousand and one nights« have certainly heard of Ali Baba and his 40 thieves or the magic formula from this tale »Open Sesame«.

A stand-up comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director

Alexandra »Ali« Dawn Wong (*1982)
She is known for her several Netflix stand-up specials and has starred in the romantic comedy film »Always Be My Maybe«. In 2023 she won a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in the dark comedy series »Beef«, which made her the first Asian woman to win a lead acting Emmy.

An actor

Mahershala Ali (*1974)
The US actor is famous for his roles in movies like »Moonlight« and »Greenbook« and has received two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award amongst others. He was ranked among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century by The New York Times.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Ali, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Ali? Are you also called Ali? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

Alì...

is the name of a municipality in the metropolitan city of Messina in Sicily.

A deep water port

Jabal Ali is an artificial deep-water port in the Emirate of Dubai. It is one of the busiest ports in the world.

A soccer stadium

There is a soccer stadium in Ar-Rayyan (Qatar) with 40,000 seats, which is named Ahmed bin Ali.

Ali has 3 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is the most popular first letter for given names. 10.3% of all common first names in the US start with this letter. The second most common initial letter in first names is J.

With only three letters, the name Ali is obviously very short. In fact, only 1.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly three letters. Just 0.2% of all first names are even shorter and only have two letters, while nearly 99% of all boys’ and girls’ names use more than three letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 10.3% of all first names start with an A, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average.

Other names with 
A, l and i

If you take all the letters in the name Ali – A, l and i – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Ila or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Ali

If your name is Ali and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Ali

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Ali, you can simply say:

Apple

Lion

Igloo

This is how the name Ali is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Ali in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Ali

Ali

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Ali

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Ali is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
L
I

Have you ever waved the name Ali

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
L
I

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Ali sounds like this: