Zalayah is a modern American coinage that joins the fashionable Za- opening with the -layah ending of Aaliyah, so it has no traditional meaning and is best understood as "a name built on Aaliyah", which itself is Arabic for exalted. Its rhythm places it alongside Zaliyah and Zaniyah. In the United States Zalayah rose from number 4485 in 2015 to a peak of number 2275 in 2022 and ranks number 2541 in 2025.