Al
Masculine
Al is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 17,079 boys against 255 girls since 1880.
Al is two letters that serve at least five names. Albert, Alfred, Alan, Alexander and Alvin all reduce to it, and nothing in the spelling says which one a bearer started from.
How old is the name Al?
Al was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Al alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 9,300 people named Al are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Al most popular?
Al peaked in 1910, reaching #285 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,518 places below that high. See the whole 1910 chart.
Al appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Albert to Al
The story of Al
Names beginning with Al- were plentiful in nineteenth and twentieth-century American use, and when several very common names share their first syllable, the shared clipping becomes inevitable and belongs to all of them. Al was in ordinary spoken use throughout, and American families registered it as a legal name in its own right from the 1910s, peaking around 1930.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Al inherits whichever parent a family had in mind. Through Albert it is the Germanic athal and beraht, 'noble-bright'; through Alfred, ælf and ræd, 'elf-counsel'; through Alan, a Breton name of unrecovered meaning; through Alexander, the Greek for 'defender of men'. The short form does not choose.
How the name formed
- Albert
- Al
Related forms: Al · Allie
Pronouncing Al
AL
One syllable. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Al
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1960392 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #285reached in 1910
- Change vs 2022
- +9.1%12 in 2025, from 11
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Al in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Al in Italian — same name
- Allie in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Als among us
people named Al are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Al
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Al sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Al beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Al in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five different traditional names can stand behind it, so the formal version stays an open choice.
- Two letters, one syllable, and never misheard or misspelled.
- It is completely unpretentious, which is either the appeal or the objection.
- It has no meaning of its own — everything depends on which parent name is chosen.
- Given outright it stays informal, with nothing longer on the certificate.
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What they receive
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Al
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Als are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,300 people named Al are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Al in 2025?
- Al ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Al?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Al — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Al with classmates?
- Al will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Al
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Al? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Al and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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