Ali.
A male given name from Arabic.
Meaning & usage
A male given name from Arabic.
The Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, considered by Shias to be Muhammad's first successor (imam).
A surname from Arabic.
Where this word comes from
From Arabic عَلِيّ (ʕaliyy, literally “high, exalted”), from the Arabic root ع ل ي (ʕ l y).
A diminutive of the female given name Alison or of its variants.
A diminutive of the male given name Alistair or of its variants.
Where this word comes from
Shortening.
Synonym of Ngari: the Mandarin Chinese-derived name.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Mandarin 阿里 (Ālǐ).
Try it on your idea.
Ali has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.