Alba
Feminine · Latin roots · “Dawn”
Alba is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 7,471 girls against 108 boys since 1880.
In Spanish, Italian and Catalan, alba is still an ordinary word you can say out loud at five in the morning: dawn, first light. It has been on US records since record-keeping began, never fashionable, never gone — and it also charts today in France and Scotland, which is a lot of ground for four letters.
How old is the name Alba?
Alba was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Alba alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 5,900 people named Alba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alba most popular?
Alba peaked in 1880, reaching #738 nationally. Today it ranks #1261, 523 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Alba appears on these lists:
Works in British and French families too:
Where it comes from
From albus (Latin, "white") to Alba
The story of Alba
Alba begins as Latin: albus, "white," and its feminine alba, the whiteness of light at the edge of the sky. In the Romance languages that grew out of Latin it never stopped being a common noun — a Spanish or Italian speaker reading this name reads the word for dawn, the way an English speaker reads Dawn. Its use as a given name is strongest in Spain and Italy, and it traveled with Spanish- and Italian-speaking families to the Americas, which is part of why California, Texas and New York hold the most Albas in the United States. The identical spelling is unrelated in Scottish Gaelic, where Alba is simply the name of the country.
Meaning
Dawn; from Latin albus, "white"
The Latin adjective albus, "white," gave the feminine alba, which became the everyday word for daybreak in Spanish, Italian and Catalan. Worth knowing separately: Alba is also the Gaelic name for Scotland and the name of a town in Piedmont — the same spelling reached by different roads, not a competing translation.
How the name formed
- albusLatin, "white"
- albaLatin feminine
- albaSpanish/Italian/Catalan, "dawn"
- Alba
Related forms: Alba · Alba · Alba · Alba · Albina · Aube
Pronouncing Alba
AHL-bah
Two syllables, stress on the first. That is the Spanish and Italian pronunciation and the one most Alba families use; in English mouths the second vowel often relaxes to AL-buh, and both are widely heard in the US.
Nicknames for Alba
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 girls named
- 2022198 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #738reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −10.6%177 in 2025, from 198
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.
Alba in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alba in Spanish — same name
- Alba in Italian — same name
- Alba in Catalan — same name
- Alba in Portuguese — same name
- Albina in Latin — related form
- Aube in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Albas among us
people named Alba are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,081 born in 2025 was named Alba
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
Alba 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 Alba is headed
Alba should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Alba beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alba in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, spelled exactly as it sounds — almost no one will need it repeated letter by letter.
- The same spelling works unchanged in Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Portuguese, and it currently charts in France and Scotland too.
- On US records continuously since the earliest years of the count, without ever becoming a fashion marker for one decade.
- Carries a plain, living meaning — dawn — that any Spanish or Italian speaker will recognize instantly.
- Has a ready-made affectionate form, Albita, already in real use.
- Uncommon enough in the US that a child will likely be the only Alba around; expect the pronunciation question — AHL-bah or AL-buh — to come up, and to be the one who settles it.
- It sits close to Alma, Alva and Elba, and gets misheard as all three, especially over the phone.
- Because Alba is well known as a surname in American pop culture, some people will hear it as a last name before they hear it as a first.
- In Scotland and among Gaelic speakers, Alba is the country's own name — charming to some families, and a fact worth knowing before it surprises you on a road sign.
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What they receive
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Alba
Feminine · Latin roots · #1261 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Albas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Alba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alba in 2025?
- Alba ranks #1261 among US girl names in 2025, with 177 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alba?
- About 1 in every 9,081 US girls born in 2025 was named Alba — 177 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alba with classmates?
- Alba will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alba
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Karolina#1261 · Tillie#1261 · Ariela#1261 · Heather#1261 · Isadora#1261 · Marlene#1261 · Areli#1261 · Zoie#1261
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alba? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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