Alberta
A feminine name of German origin meaning "noble, bright."
Name Census estimates that about 13,388 living Americans carry the first name Alberta. It is a predominantly female name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Alberta today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alberta births was 1919 (2,026 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alberta. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Alberta with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alberta is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 399 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Alberta is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Albertas were born before 1964.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Alberta have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 25,602 Americans
Peak year
1919
2,026 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1987 SSA rank
#6,107
Tracked since 1880
Census
Alberta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,223 people with the first name Alberta, which placed it at #1,591 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,591
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,223 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alberta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alberta is White at 45.7%. The next largest groups are Black (33.2%) and Hispanic (15.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Alberta described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Alberta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.7% · 9,243
- Black or African American33.2% · 6,704
- Hispanic or Latino15.3% · 3,102
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 515
- Two or more races2.0% · 409
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 250
Gender
Gender distribution for Alberta
Out of the 70,754 babies given the name Alberta since 1880, 99.4% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Alberta as a male name
- Ranked #6,107 in 1987
- 6 male births in 1987
- Peak: 1918 (16 births)
Alberta as a female name
- Ranked #10,281 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (2,017 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alberta appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,221 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Alberta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alberta from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 17,975 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alberta by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Alberta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Albertas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York recorded the most babies named Alberta, while Alaska, Utah, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,162 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alberta
The name Alberta has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically Old High German. It is a feminine form of the name Albert, which itself derives from the Germanic elements "adal" meaning "noble" and "beraht" meaning "bright" or "shining."
Alberta first emerged as a name during the medieval period in various Germanic-speaking regions of Europe. It was likely influenced by the veneration of Saint Albert the Great, a renowned 13th-century German Dominican friar and philosopher who was canonized in 1622.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alberta can be found in the 14th-century Italian text "Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, where one of the characters is named Alberta. This suggests that the name had already gained some popularity in parts of Europe by that time.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Alberta. In the 16th century, Alberta Badoer (1543-1590) was a Venetian noblewoman and patron of the arts, known for her salon and support of writers and artists.
In the 19th century, Alberta Valerio (1825-1905) was an Italian writer and poet who contributed to the Romantic literary movement. Her works often explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition.
Another notable Alberta was Alberta Hunter (1895-1984), an American singer, songwriter, and actress who rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. She is remembered for her contributions to blues and jazz music.
In the 20th century, Alberta Williams King (1904-1974) was an influential African American Baptist minister and the mother of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement.
More recently, Alberta Ferretti (born 1950) is an Italian fashion designer known for her luxury clothing and accessory brand, which she founded in 1973 and has since gained global recognition.
While the name Alberta has Germanic roots, it has been embraced across various cultures and regions over the centuries, with notable individuals bearing this name leaving their mark in various fields such as literature, music, civil rights, and fashion.
People
Alberta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alberta as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Alberta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alberta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,388 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alberta going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 25,602 US residents.
Is Alberta a common name?
We classify Alberta as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 70,754 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alberta most popular?
The single biggest year for Alberta was 1919, when 2,026 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alberta is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alberta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,223 people with the name Alberta, or 6.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,591 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Alberta in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Alberta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alberta appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,221 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Alberta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alberta is White at 45.7%. The next largest groups are Black (33.2%) and Hispanic (15.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Alberta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alberta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.7% (9,243 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Alberta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alberta a female name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Alberta in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Alberta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alberta in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Alberta can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Alberta?
See how many Americans are named Alberta on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.