Albany
Feminine · “Gaelic Alba”
Albany is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 725 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Alba is the Gaelic name for Scotland. A younger son of a Scottish king was made Duke of Albany, a Latinized version of it. James, Duke of Albany, became James II, and New York's colonial capital was renamed in his honor. Albany is Scotland, three steps removed.
How old is the name Albany?
Albany first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Albany alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Albany are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Albany most popular?
Albany peaked in 1998, reaching #3914 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 4,946 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alba to Albany
The story of Albany
A name can travel through several institutional layers before it reaches a child, and each layer usually erases the one before it. Alba was a country's name in its own language. The Latinized Albany was a title held by royal second sons, a legal object rather than a place. Fort Orange in New Netherland was renamed Albany in 1664 when the English took the colony, honoring the title rather than the country. American parents in the 1990s took the city, because place names were a productive source of girls' names in that decade. The result is a name whose bearer is four removes from Scotland and where each remove was a real, documented, deliberate act rather than a drift. Compare Brooklyn, one remove from the Dutch town Breukelen, and Kimberley, one remove from a South African diamond field.
Meaning
Gaelic Alba, Scotland
Albany is the Latinized form of Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland, used from the fourteenth century as the title Duke of Albany for a Scottish royal duke. The city of Albany, New York, was renamed in 1664 for James Stuart, then Duke of Albany and later James II. Alba itself is old and its origin is uncertain, possibly connected to a word for white or high ground and to the Alps. The American peak of the given name is 1998.
How the name formed
- Alba
- Albania
- Albany
Related forms: Alba · Albani
Pronouncing Albany
AWL-buh-nee
Three syllables, stress on the first. The New York city is said AWL-buh-nee; the Georgia city and the Australian one are said al-BAN-ee. Both readings exist for the name.
Nicknames for Albany
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 200730 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3914reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −8.3%11 in 2025, from 12
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.
Albany in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alba in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Albani in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio.
Albanys among us
people named Albany are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Albany
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Konstantina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Albany's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Konstantina climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Konstantina's path sketches the road Albany is walking now.
Albany 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
Albany beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Albany in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Albie and Alba both work as short forms.
- It follows the well-established place-name pattern for girls.
- The history behind it is documented at every step.
- Two American cities of this name are said differently.
- It is a state capital and will be heard as one.
- Albany and Albania are close enough to be confused.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Albany
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Albanys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Albany are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Albany in 2025?
- Albany ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Albany?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Albany — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Albany with classmates?
- Albany will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Albany
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Albany? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Albany and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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