Alina
Feminine · “Either "noble" or "light”
Alina is one of those names that turns up independently in half a dozen languages — Polish, Romanian, Russian, Italian, German — and needs no translation in any of them. Four syllables of open vowels, ah-LEE-nah, with nothing in it that catches on an English tongue. It has been on American records far longer than its recent climb suggests.
How old is the name Alina?
Alina first appears in US birth records in 1892 — 133 years ago. The typical Alina is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 45,000 people named Alina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alina most popular?
Alina peaked in 2025, reaching #130 nationally. Today it ranks #130, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Adalheid to Alina
The story of Alina
The Germanic route arrives through Adelina, a diminutive of names beginning with adal, "noble", which spread through medieval Italy, France and the German-speaking lands and shed its first syllable in ordinary speech. The Slavic route runs through Alena, a household form of Yelena, the Eastern Slavic Helena — which is why Alina has been at home in Poland, Ukraine and Russia for generations without anyone treating it as borrowed. In Poland it gained a literary anchor in the nineteenth century as Alina, the gentler of the two sisters in Juliusz Słowacki's verse drama Balladyna. American records show it arriving early and quietly, long before the wave that carries it now.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "noble" or "light", depending on which root you follow
Two serious lines converge on the same spelling. One takes Alina as a shortened form of Adelina, from the Germanic element adal, "noble" — the route it traveled in Italian and German. The other treats it as a Slavic form built on Alena, itself a short form of Yelena (Helena), which carries the sense of light or a torch. Alina is also used across the Arabic- and Persian-speaking world, where it is read separately from either European line.
How the name formed
- Adalheid
- Adelina
- Alina
Related forms: Alina · Алина · Alina · Aline · Adelina · Alena
Pronouncing Alina
ah-LEE-nah
Stress on the middle syllable in every language that uses it. Some American speakers reach for uh-LY-nah on first sight, so expect to correct that occasionally; the ah-LEE-nah version is the standard one worldwide.
Nicknames for Alina
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
- 1892
- Most girls named
- 20252,204 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #130reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +15.9%2,204 in 2025, from 1,902
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.
Alina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alina in Polish — same name
- Алина in Russian — transliteration
- Alina in Romanian — same name
- Aline in German — related form
- Adelina in Italian — related form
- Alena in Czech — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Alinas among us
people named Alina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 729 born in 2025 was named Alina
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 Kellie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kellie climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kellie's path sketches the road Alina is walking now.
Alina is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Alina is headed
Alina 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.
Alina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in Polish, Romanian, Russian, Italian and Arabic-speaking settings — one of the few names that needs no local adaptation.
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to explain.
- Comes with Lina already established as a short form in several languages, alongside informal Ali.
- Documented on American records long before its current rise, so it has depth as well as freshness.
- It sits in a crowded field of near-identical spellings — Alaina, Aleena, Alena, Elena — so "Alina, A-L-I-N-A" will become a reflex, and mail will occasionally arrive addressed to one of the others.
- The first-sight reading uh-LY-nah is common enough among English speakers that a child will do some gentle correcting, particularly with substitute teachers and receptionists.
- The trend line is moving upward rather than settling, so a name that currently stands out in a classroom may be noticeably more familiar by the time she is in high school.
- The meaning depends on which root you trace, which means there is no single answer to give her — though it does mean she gets two histories instead of one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Alina to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Alina? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Alina
Feminine · #130 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 45,000 people named Alina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alina in 2025?
- Alina ranks #130 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,204 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alina?
- About 1 in every 729 US girls born in 2025 was named Alina — 2,204 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alina with classmates?
- Alina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Serenity#129 · Julia#131 · Amira#132 · Ariana#128 · Valerie#127 · Charlie#133 · Scottie#126 · Eva#134
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle