Allison
Masculine · “Germanic adal”
Allison is given to girls far more often — 319,119 girls against 3,825 boys since 1880. See Allison as a girl name
There are two Allisons and they arrived by different roads. The girl's name is a medieval French diminutive of Alice; the boy's is a Scottish surname. They met in the American records in the nineteenth century and only one of them survived.
How old is the name Allison?
Allison was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Allison alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 1,800 people named Allison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Allison most popular?
Allison peaked in 1896, reaching #481 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,214 places below that high. See the whole 1896 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Allison
The story of Allison
Alison was a common female name in medieval England, built the way French built its diminutives, and it faded in English after the Middle Ages before returning in the twentieth century. Meanwhile the surname Allison developed in Scotland and northern England, from Allan or from Alice as a mother's name, and it entered the American given-name pool through the same nineteenth-century habit that produced Grady, Sterling and Rogers as boys' names. For a few decades the two ran side by side, one female and medieval, one male and territorial, spelled identically. The female line then grew enormously in the second half of the twentieth century and the male line disappeared, which is the usual outcome when a name is available to both.
Meaningscholars disagree
Germanic adal, noble, with a French diminutive
The female Alison is Alice with the Old French diminutive -on, and Alice descends from Germanic Adalheidis, noble kind. The male use derives instead from the Scottish and northern English surname Allison, meaning son of Allan or of Alice. The two are separate names sharing a spelling; the male peak is 1896.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Alice
- Alison
- Allison
Related forms: Alison · Allison
Pronouncing Allison
AL-ih-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. There is no separate male pronunciation.
Nicknames for Allison
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 191772 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #481reached in 1896
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Allison in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alison in English — spelling variant
- Allison in Scots — same name
Allisons among us
people named Allison are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Allison
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Allison
- #10695
- Allison on the 2025 chart
- #917
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Allison went to 6 boys in 2025, but Alison is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 11, which makes it the 917th most-given boys’ name of the year — 9,778 places above the chart.
- Allison6
- Alison5
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 284,679 for Allison 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
Fashion outlook
Allison 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
Allison beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Allison in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Al works as a short form for either sex.
- Both routes into the name are genuine and documented.
- Three syllables with a firm opening beat.
- The name is female in America by an overwhelming margin now.
- Its male use ended more than a century ago.
- Alison with one l is the older spelling.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Allison
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Allisons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Allison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Allison?
- Allison is the most-used spelling in US records — 6 of the 11 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Alison.
- How popular is the name Allison in 2025?
- Allison ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Allison?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Allison — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Allison with classmates?
- Allison will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Allison
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695 · Garnet#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Allison? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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