Alette
A feminine name derived from the German word "adal", meaning noble.
Name Census estimates that about 112 living Americans carry the first name Alette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alette today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alette births was 2020 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alette. 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.
People living today
112
~ 1 in 3,060,307 Americans
Peak year
2020
12 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,535
Tracked since 1962
Census
Alette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 211 people with the first name Alette, which placed it at #37,164 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
#37,164
National first-name rank
People counted
211
211 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alette is White at 59.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.1%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Alette 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 Alette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.2% · 125
- Hispanic or Latino16.1% · 34
- Black or African American14.7% · 31
- Two or more races6.2% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Alette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alette from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 53 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Alette remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alette 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 Alette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alette
The name Alette has its origins in the Germanic languages and is believed to have emerged during the Middle Ages. It is a variant or diminutive form of the Germanic name Adelaide, which is composed of the elements "adal" meaning "noble" and "haid" meaning "kind" or "sort."
One of the earliest records of the name Alette can be found in the chronicles of the Carolingian dynasty, which ruled a large portion of western and central Europe from the 8th to the 10th centuries. It is mentioned as the name of a noblewoman who lived during the reign of Charlemagne, the first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 12th century, Alette was the name of a renowned abbess who founded a Benedictine monastery in the region of Normandy, France. Her life and accomplishments were documented in a hagiography, or a biography of a saint, which helped to popularize the name in certain parts of Europe.
During the Renaissance period, Alette was the name of a French poetess and courtier who served under King Francis I in the 16th century. She was known for her witty verses and her participation in the literary salons of the time.
In the 17th century, Alette van Pottenhoven was a Dutch artist and engraver who achieved recognition for her intricate etchings and portraits. She was active in the city of Haarlem, which was a center for the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
Another notable figure with the name Alette was Alette Jeremias, a Norwegian missionary who traveled to India in the early 19th century. She established schools and worked to promote education and social welfare among underprivileged communities.
While the name Alette has its roots in the Germanic languages, it has been used across various European cultures and has acquired different spellings and variations over time, such as Aletta, Alettha, and Aleta.
People
Alette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alette 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
Alette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 112 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alette 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 3,060,307 US residents.
Is Alette a common name?
We classify Alette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 114 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alette most popular?
The single biggest year for Alette was 2020, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alette is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 211 people with the name Alette, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,164 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 Alette 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 Alette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alette appears almost entirely female. Of the 207 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Alette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alette is White at 59.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.1%) and Black (14.7%). 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 Alette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.2% (125 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 Alette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alette 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 Alette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alette 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 Alette 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 Americans are named Alette?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Alette at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.