Alaric
Masculine · “ruler of all”
Alaric is a Gothic name that Latin scribes wrote down and never quite let go of: Alareiks, king of the Visigoths, who marched into Rome in 410. It has been carried in German, Spanish and Italian mouths since, and in English it lands in three clean beats, AL-uh-rik, with the same -ric ending that sits inside Roderick and Frederick.
How old is the name Alaric?
Alaric first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Alaric is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,900 people named Alaric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alaric most popular?
Alaric peaked in 2020, reaching #822 nationally. Today it ranks #1063, 241 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Alaric appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Alareiks to Alaric
The story of Alaric
The name belongs to the Gothic language, spoken by peoples who moved along the Danube and into the Roman world in late antiquity. Its most famous bearer, Alaric I, led the Visigoths into Rome in 410 — an event Roman writers recorded at length, which is why the name survives in Latin form as Alaricus while most Gothic names vanished with the language. A second Visigothic king of the same name ruled in Gaul and Spain around the turn of the sixth century, keeping it alive in the Iberian record, where it settled as Alarico. English took it back from the Latin histories rather than from any unbroken line of English families, which is why it has always read as a name out of books here.
Meaning
ruler of all
From the Gothic elements ala 'all' and reiks 'ruler, king' — the second one a cousin of Latin rex. A minority analysis reads the first element as 'noble' instead of 'all', giving 'noble ruler'; either way the ruler half is not in doubt.
How the name formed
- Alareiks
- Alaricus
- Alarich
- Alarico
- Alaric
Related forms: Alarich · Alarico · Alarico · Alarico · Alaricus · Alarick
Pronouncing Alaric
AL-uh-rik
Stress on the first syllable, as in Alexander. You will occasionally hear uh-LAIR-ik from people meeting it in print for the first time; the first-syllable stress is the standard one in English and in German Alarich.
Nicknames for Alaric
High
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
- 1949
- Most boys named
- 2021274 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #822reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +6.2%205 in 2025, from 193
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.
Alaric in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alarich in German — same name
- Alarico in Spanish — same name
- Alarico in Italian — same name
- Alarico in Portuguese — same name
- Alaricus in Latin — same name
- Alarick in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Alarics among us
people named Alaric are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 8,332 born in 2025 was named Alaric
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alaric
- #1063
- Alaric on the 2025 chart
- #701
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alaric went to 205 boys in 2025, but Alarick and Alarik are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 231, which makes it the 701st most-given boys’ name of the year — 362 places above the chart.
- Alaric205
- Alarick15
- Alarik11
About 1 boy in 7,394 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,332 for Alaric itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Pascal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alaric's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pascal climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pascal's path sketches the road Alaric is walking now.
Alaric 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
Where Alaric is headed
Alaric should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Alaric beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alaric in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, so it survives being said aloud over the phone without a second attempt.
- Documented continuously since late antiquity, in Latin chronicles and then in German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese forms.
- Ready-made short forms — Al, Ric, Ari — each of which already stands alone as a name people know.
- Distinctive without being invented: rare in classrooms, yet immediately placeable as a historical name rather than a coinage.
- Many Americans know the name from Alaric Saltzman in The Vampire Diaries rather than from the Visigoths. That association is friendly enough, but it is the one most likely to come up, and it may fade while the name stays.
- The historical Alaric is remembered chiefly for sacking Rome. If a conqueror in the family tree of the name bothers you, better to notice that now than at the christening.
- Rare enough that it will usually need one repetition and occasional spelling out — Alarick and Alric both exist as variants, so people will guess.
- It sits at the formal end of things on a roll call. The short forms carry the everyday work, so it helps to like at least one of them.
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What they receive
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Alaric
Masculine · #1063 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alarics are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Alaric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alaric?
- Alaric is the most-used spelling in US records — 205 of the 231 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Alarick and Alarik.
- How popular is the name Alaric in 2025?
- Alaric ranks #1063 among US boy names in 2025, with 205 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alaric?
- About 1 in every 8,332 US boys born in 2025 was named Alaric — 205 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alaric with classmates?
- Alaric will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alaric
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ronnie#1064 · Ismail#1064 · Eider#1064 · Neo#1064 · Zakari#1060 · Henrik#1060 · Nixon#1060 · Billy#1068
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alaric? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alaric and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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