Alice
Masculine · “of a noble kind”
Alice is given to girls far more often — 588,147 girls against 1,959 boys since 1880. See Alice as a girl name
Alice lost half its length crossing two languages. The Old German original had four syllables and joined an element meaning noble to one meaning kind or sort; Old French wore it down to two, dropping the middle entirely, and English took the short version and never looked back. Almost nothing of the compound is visible now.
How old is the name Alice?
Alice first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Alice alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 500 people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alice most popular?
Alice peaked in 1897, reaching #473 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Alice
The story of Alice
One woman carrying it changed what a short story could be asked to do. She wrote almost nothing but stories across a working life of half a century, set nearly all of them in small towns in southwestern Ontario, and built them so that a paragraph could contain forty years and a marriage could turn on a sentence somebody almost said. When she was given the Nobel it was the first time the prize had gone to a writer working essentially only in that form — no novels to lean on, no body of poetry, just the stories, and the committee said so.
Meaning
of a noble kind
Both Germanic elements are well attested and the chain of forms from the compound to the modern name is documented at every stage. What is gone is any way of seeing that from the name as it now stands.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Adelais
- Aalis
- Alice
Related forms: Alice · Alice · Alicia · Alice
Pronouncing Alice
AL-iss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. French says it in two as well, with the weight at the back, which English speakers rarely attempt.
Nicknames for Alice
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192649 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #473reached in 1897
- Change vs 2019
- +20.0%6 in 2024, from 5
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.
Alice in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alice in French — same name
- Alice in Italian — same name
- Alicia in Spanish — same name
- Alice in German — same name
Alices among us
people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Alice sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- It has been in continuous use since the medieval period without interruption.
- The spelling is short, unambiguous and never needs repeating.
- It is currently fashionable again, so a child may not be the only one.
- The meaning is entirely invisible without explanation.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Alice
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Alices are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alice in 2025?
- Alice is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Alice with classmates?
- Alice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alice? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alice and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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