Alwin
Masculine · “friend”
Three different Old English names collapsed into this one. Aelfwine was elf friend. Aethelwine was noble friend. Ealdwine was old friend. All three wore down to the same modern spelling, and there is no way to tell from a modern Alwin which of them a family started with.
How old is the name Alwin?
Alwin first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Alwin alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 400 people named Alwin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alwin most popular?
Alwin peaked in 1895, reaching #978 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,030 places below that high. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From wine to Alwin
The story of Alwin
Old English names were compounds and the elements were a fixed stock, which meant a great many names differed only in their first half. When the language changed and the compounds stopped being transparent, the differences wore away: unstressed elements reduced, spellings drifted, and names that had been clearly distinct became homophones. Ealdwine gave Alden and Aldwin; Aethelwine gave Alwin and Elwin; Aelfwine gave Alvin and Alwin too. The friend at the end survived intact in all of them and stopped being an ordinary English word around the twelfth century, so it now exists only inside names, doing the same job it always did without anyone hearing it.
Meaningscholars disagree
friend — of an elf, a noble or an old man
The second element is certain: wine is the Old English word for a friend, and it ends a long row of names. The first is not. Aelf, aethel and eald all produce the same modern form, and the three original names were distinct and are now indistinguishable.
How the name formed
- wine
- Aethelwine
- Alwin
Related forms: Alwin · Alwin
Pronouncing Alwin
AL-win
Two syllables, stress on the first. German and Dutch say the same letters with a fuller second vowel, AL-veen, since a w in those languages is a v.
Nicknames for Alwin
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
- 1895
- Most boys named
- 191526 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #978reached in 1895
- Change vs 2021
- −44.4%5 in 2025, from 9
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.
Alwin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alwin in German — same name
- Alwin in Dutch — same name
Alwins among us
people named Alwin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Alwin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alwin
- #12008
- Alwin on the 2025 chart
- #910
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alwin went to 5 boys in 2025, but Alwyn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 18, which makes it the 910th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,098 places above the chart.
- Alwyn13
- Alwin5
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Alwin 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
Alwin 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
Alwin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alwin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The second element is a documented Old English word with a clear meaning.
- Two syllables and a spelling that nobody has to be told.
- The same spelling works in German and Dutch.
- Alvin and Alwyn are both commoner, so the spelling will be given often.
- The first element cannot be recovered, so the meaning has three possible answers.
- It is strongly represented among older generations and reads clearly as of that time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Alwin
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alwins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Alwin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alwin?
- Alwin is one of 2 recorded spellings. Alwyn is the more common one — 13 births in 2025 against 5 for Alwin.
- How popular is the name Alwin in 2025?
- Alwin ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alwin?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Alwin — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alwin with classmates?
- Alwin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alwin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alwin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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