Alister
Masculine · “defender of men”
Alister is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,659 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Alister is the Scots of Alexander — defender of men — and Alasdair is the Gaelic form that has been standard in the Highlands for eight hundred years.
How old is the name Alister?
Alister first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Alister is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,600 people named Alister are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alister most popular?
Alister peaked in 2022, reaching #1330 nationally. Today it ranks #1688, 358 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alexandros to Alister
The story of Alister
Alexander became a Scottish royal name through three medieval kings, and Gaelic Alasdair spread through the Highlands and Islands to the point where Sassenachs used it as a generic for a Highlander. The anglicized Alister and Alistair are standard in Scotland. It appears in American records and is in current use.
Meaning
defender of men
Through Alexander, from the Greek alexein, 'to defend', and aner, 'man'. Gaelic took it as Alasdair, which English rendered as Alister, Alistair and Allister. Both Greek elements are ordinary and the compound is undisputed.
How the name formed
- Alexandros
- Alexander
- Alasdair
- Alister
Related forms: Alasdair · Alistair · Allister
Pronouncing Alister
AL-is-tur
Three syllables, stress on the first. Gaelic Alasdair is AL-us-tur with the same shape.
Nicknames for Alister
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 2022141 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1330reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −4.9%97 in 2025, from 102
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.
Alister in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alasdair in Gaelic — related form
- Alistair in English — spelling variant
- Allister in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Alisters among us
people named Alister are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 17,609 born in 2025 was named Alister
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alister
- #1688
- Alister on the 2025 chart
- #785
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alister went to 97 boys in 2025, but Allister and Alyster are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 143, which makes it the 785th most-given boys’ name of the year — 903 places above the chart.
- Alister97
- Allister41
- Alyster5
About 1 boy in 11,945 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 17,609 for Alister 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 Kendric test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alister's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kendric climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kendric's path sketches the road Alister is walking now.
Alister 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 Alister is headed
Alister should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Alister beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alister in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Alexander behind it has a transparent meaning and unmatched historical reach.
- A documented Gaelic tradition eight centuries deep stands behind it.
- Al is available as a completely ordinary short form.
- Alistair is the commoner spelling and the two are constantly confused.
- It reads as distinctly Scottish.
- Three spellings of the sound are in common use.
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What they receive
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Alister
Masculine · #1688 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alisters are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Alister are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alister?
- Alister is the most-used spelling in US records — 97 of the 143 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Allister and Alyster.
- How popular is the name Alister in 2025?
- Alister ranks #1688 among US boy names in 2025, with 97 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alister?
- About 1 in every 17,609 US boys born in 2025 was named Alister — 97 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alister with classmates?
- Alister will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alister
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yaman#1688 · Ransom#1688 · Caelum#1688 · Darrell#1688 · Viggo#1688 · Raylen#1688 · Meyer#1688 · Naim#1688
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alister? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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