Alta
Feminine · “high”
Alta is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 28,931 girls against 117 boys since 1880.
Alta is the Latin and Spanish word for high, used as a name — one of a small group of nineteenth-century American names taken straight from a Romance-language adjective without any saint or story attached.
How old is the name Alta?
Alta was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Alta alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 5,600 people named Alta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alta most popular?
Alta peaked in 1881, reaching #137 nationally. Today it ranks #4265, 4,128 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From altus to Alta
The story of Alta
Nineteenth-century American families reached well beyond the saints' calendar for names, and Latin and Spanish vocabulary was one of the places they looked: Alta, Vesta, Ora, Nova. The Spanish-speaking Southwest supplied a second route, both through the adjective itself and through the Marian title Altagracia. Alta appears in American records from the 1870s and peaked around 1900, at the same moment as Ora, Ola and Eula.
Meaningscholars disagree
high, elevated
The straightforward reading is the Latin and Spanish alta, the feminine of altus, 'high'. It is a real word in both languages. The competing account treats the name as a clipping of Altagracia — a Marian title, 'high grace', important in the Dominican Republic — in which case the sense is the same word doing different work.
How the name formed
- altus
- alta
- Alta
Related forms: Alta · Altagracia · Alta
Pronouncing Alta
AL-tuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish says it with a purer first vowel but the same shape.
Nicknames for Alta
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 girls named
- 1918820 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #137reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- +6.5%33 in 2025, from 31
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.
Alta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alta in Spanish — same name
- Altagracia in Spanish — related form
- Alta in Italian — same name
Altas among us
people named Alta are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was named Alta
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Alta 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 Alta is headed
Alta is easing off slowly — about 15% 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.
Alta beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alta in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent in two very large languages and needs no explaining.
- Two firm syllables and no pronunciation ambiguity at all.
- It is genuinely rare now while being entirely traditional in American records.
- It is an ordinary adjective in Spanish and Italian, so the name is never only a name there.
- It is strongly period-coded to the turn of the last century.
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What they receive
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Alta
Feminine · #4265 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Altas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,600 people named Alta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alta in 2025?
- Alta ranks #4265 among US girl names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alta?
- About 1 in every 48,705 US girls born in 2025 was named Alta — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alta with classmates?
- Alta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alta
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hyacinth#4265 · Halina#4265 · Michal#4265 · Sadia#4265 · Zahava#4265 · Maiah#4265 · Daysi#4265 · Corrie#4265
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alta? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alta and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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