Alvira
Feminine
Alvira is a spelling of Elvira, and Elvira is one of the few names in Spanish that came from a language nobody has spoken for more than a thousand years. It arrived with the Goths, outlived them, and is now a town, a gate and a name.
How old is the name Alvira?
Alvira first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Alvira alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 100 people named Alvira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alvira most popular?
Alvira peaked in 1885, reaching #921 nationally. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elvira to Alvira
The story of Alvira
The name is written on the landscape of southern Spain. Before Granada was Granada, the district around it was called Elvira — a Roman town, then a bishopric that held one of the earliest church councils on record, then a mountain and a gate. The Puerta de Elvira still stands in Granada, a great horseshoe arch that was the main road in from the west. A name that belonged to a vanished kingdom's aristocracy came to rest on a city gate and on a long line of Spanish queens and noblewomen. In America the older spelling has a newer life, attached since the nineteen-eighties to a television horror hostess who introduced late-night monster films in a black dress and made the name entirely her own.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name is Visigothic and its elements have not been convincingly identified. Readings involving a spear, a word about truth, and a term for a foreigner have all been offered, and none of them can be demonstrated — the language left too little behind. What is certain is the route: Germanic rulers, Spanish mouths, a thousand years of use.
How the name formed
- Elvira
- Alvira
Related forms: Elvira · Elvira · Elvira
Pronouncing Alvira
al-VY-ruh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle and a long i. Spanish says el-VEE-rah, with a different vowel in the middle entirely.
Nicknames for Alvira
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 192043 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #921reached in 1885
- Change vs 1980
- 0.0%5 in 2016, from 5
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.
Alvira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Elvira in Spanish — same name
- Elvira in Italian — same name
- Elvira in Portuguese — same name
Alviras among us
people named Alvira are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Alvira sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is genuinely ancient, with a documented route through Spanish history.
- The sound is dramatic without being difficult for an English speaker.
- It is rare in current use while being entirely familiar as a name.
- Elvira is the standard spelling and hers will be corrected to it regularly.
- For most Americans the name belongs first to a television character in a black dress.
- The meaning is genuinely lost, so any confident gloss she is offered is invented.
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Alvira
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Alviras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Alvira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alvira in 2025?
- Alvira is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Alvira with classmates?
- Alvira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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