Athalia is a form of the Hebrew Athaliah and means "God is exalted" or "the Lord is exalted". In the Bible Athaliah was a queen who ruled Judah in her own right, a story Racine turned into a tragedy and Handel into an oratorio. In the United States Athalia ranked number 8086 in 2000, climbed steadily through the 2010s and reached number 2103 among girls' names in 2025, its best rank yet.