Allyson
Feminine · “noble kind”
Allyson is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 53,758 girls against 21 boys since 1880.
Allyson is the American double-l spelling of Alison, a name the Normans carried into England and Scotland, where it settled in for the long haul. It has been shortened to Ally and Allie for generations, and it says itself: three easy syllables, no hard edges, nothing to explain twice. Behind it stands Alice, and behind Alice a Germanic compound about noble birth.
How old is the name Allyson?
Allyson first appears in US birth records in 1945 — 80 years ago. The typical Allyson alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 52,500 people named Allyson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Allyson most popular?
Allyson peaked in 1998, reaching #186 nationally. Today it ranks #1139, 953 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Adalheidis to Allyson
The story of Allyson
Adalheidis was a Germanic name that Old French wore down to Aalis, then Alice, and French speakers made affectionate forms of it the way they made Marion from Marie — Alison among them. The Normans brought both to Britain, where Alison took especially deep root in Scotland. It appears in Middle English literature in the older spellings: the Wife of Bath is Alisoun, and one of the best-known medieval English love lyrics is addressed to an Alysoun. The forms with -y- and a doubled l are largely American respellings of the twentieth century, which is when Allyson arrived on US records and began its long climb.
Meaning
noble kind, noble sort
Allyson is a spelling of Alison, a medieval French pet form of Alice. Alice comes from the Germanic Adalheidis, from adal 'noble' and heid 'kind, sort'. The meaning belongs to the root; the -on ending is simply the old affectionate suffix.
How the name formed
- Adalheidis
- Aalis
- Alice
- Alison
- Allyson
Related forms: Alison · Allison · Alison · Alisson · Alice · Adelheid
Pronouncing Allyson
AL-ih-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Some families say AL-ee-sun. The -y- makes no difference to the sound.
Nicknames for Allyson
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
- 1945
- Most girls named
- 19991,483 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #186reached in 1998
- Change vs 2023
- −23.4%203 in 2025, from 265
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.
Allyson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alison in English — spelling variant
- Allison in English — spelling variant
- Alison in French — same name
- Alisson in Portuguese (Brazil) — spelling variant
- Alice in English — related form
- Adelheid in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Allysons among us
people named Allyson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,918 born in 2025 was named Allyson
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Allyson
- #1139
- Allyson on the 2025 chart
- #76
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Allyson went to 203 girls in 2025, but Allison, Alison and Alyson are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 3,577, which makes it the 76th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,063 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 449 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,918 for Allyson 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 Janelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Allyson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janelle climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janelle's path sketches the road Allyson is walking now.
Allyson 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 Allyson is headed
Allyson is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Allyson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Allyson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two ready-made short forms, Ally and Allie, both in real use for generations and both able to stand alone.
- No pronunciation ambiguity — anyone who has met an Alison or Allison will say it correctly on sight.
- A documented line back through medieval French and English, with the same name recognizable in French, Portuguese and German forms.
- Familiar without being crowded now: known to everyone, yet unlikely to be duplicated in a classroom.
- Alison, Allison, Alyson and Allyson all sound identical, and Allison is the spelling most people default to. Expect a lifetime of spelling it out, and of mail addressed to the other versions.
- The name rose and eased back within living memory, so it sits most thickly among adults rather than children right now — noticeable if that matters to you, invisible to a child either way.
- Ally and Ali are shared territory with Alicia, Alexandra and Alexis, so a nickname may not identify her on its own in a group.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Allyson
Feminine · #1139 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Allysons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 52,500 people named Allyson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Allyson?
- Allyson is one of 4 recorded spellings. Allison is the more common one — 2,564 births in 2025 against 203 for Allyson.
- How popular is the name Allyson in 2025?
- Allyson ranks #1139 among US girl names in 2025, with 203 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Allyson?
- About 1 in every 7,918 US girls born in 2025 was named Allyson — 203 in all.
- Will my child share the name Allyson with classmates?
- Allyson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Allyson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kamari#1139 · Aubriella#1139 · Giulia#1139 · Taliyah#1139 · Emmalyn#1137 · Grecia#1137 · Julissa#1135 · Ailana#1135
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Allyson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Allyson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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