Alin
Feminine · “to soothe”
Alin is given to both — 506 girls and 144 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Romanian has a verb, a alina, meaning to soothe or to take the edge off pain. Alin and Alina are the names Romanian speakers connect it with, and whether the link is historical or affectionate, it is the one they hear.
How old is the name Alin?
Alin first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Alin alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 500 people named Alin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alin most popular?
Alin peaked in 2007, reaching #4050 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 6,867 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alina to Alin
The story of Alin
Alina is used from Portugal to Russia, and its route is not traceable to a single point: it is short enough to have been arrived at several times over, from Adelina, from Albina, from Polish Halina, and independently in Romanian. What is unusual is the masculine. Romanian is one of the few languages that made a man's name of it, and there Alin is common and unambiguous. In American records the same four letters go almost entirely to girls, where they are read as a shortened Alina rather than as the Romanian name. Both children are real, and the spelling gives no clue which one a form is describing.
Meaningscholars disagree
to soothe, in the Romanian reading
Two accounts compete. Romanian usage connects Alin and Alina with the verb a alina, to soothe or relieve. The alternative, standard in name dictionaries elsewhere, treats Alina as a short form of Adelina — the Germanic adal, noble — that became independent, with Alin built back from it afterwards. Neither has been settled, and the name is used in both understandings.
How the name formed
- Alina
- Alin
Related forms: Alin · Alina · Alina · Halina
Pronouncing Alin
ah-LEEN
Two syllables with the weight at the end, as in Romanian. American speakers often front-load it as AL-in, with a short i, and both are in use here. Saying which you mean becomes a regular small task.
Nicknames for Alin
Limited
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
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 200738 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4050reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%8 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.
Alin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alin in Romanian — same name
- Alina in Romanian — related form
- Alina in Russian — transliteration
- Halina in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Alins among us
people named Alin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Alin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alin
- #10917
- Alin on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alin went to 8 girls in 2025, but Alynn, Allyn and Alyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,990 places above the chart.
- Alynn11
- Alin8
- Allyn7
- Alyn7
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Alin 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 Kendi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kendi climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kendi's path sketches the road Alin is walking now.
Alin 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
Alin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, among the shortest names in the records that still carry two syllables.
- A real name in Romanian rather than a coinage, with settled use there.
- It needs no short form, because it is already one.
- In Romania this is a man's name, and a small number of American boys carry the spelling too; here it will be read as a girl's name either way.
- It will be taken for a typo of Alina, Alan or Allen.
- There is no settled American pronunciation, and the spelling supplies none.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Alin
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alins 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 Alin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alin?
- Alin is one of 4 recorded spellings. Alynn is the more common one — 11 births in 2025 against 8 for Alin.
- How popular is the name Alin in 2025?
- Alin ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alin?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Alin — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alin with classmates?
- Alin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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