Alfie
A diminutive form of Alfred, derived from the Old English name meaning "elf counsel".
Name Census estimates that about 976 living Americans carry the first name Alfie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Alfie today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alfie births was 2024 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alfie. 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 Alfie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
976
~ 1 in 351,183 Americans
Peak year
2024
74 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,038
Tracked since 1915
Census
Alfie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 874 people with the first name Alfie, which placed it at #13,712 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
#13,712
National first-name rank
People counted
874
874 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alfie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alfie is White at 38.1%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (22.8%). 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 Alfie 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 Alfie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.1% · 333
- Black or African American24.0% · 210
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.8% · 199
- Hispanic or Latino11.2% · 98
- Two or more races2.4% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Alfie
Alfie leans heavily male at 88.4% of total registrations, but 128 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Alfie as a male name
- Ranked #2,038 in 2024
- 74 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (74 births)
Alfie as a female name
- Ranked #15,212 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1967 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alfie leans strongly male. 727 people counted with this name were male (82.1%), compared with 158 female bearers (17.9%).
Popularity
Alfie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alfie from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 300 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alfie 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 Alfie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alfies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Alfie, while Michigan, Ohio, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alfie
The name Alfie is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Alfred, which is derived from the Old English words "ælf" meaning "elf" and "ræd" meaning "counsel". The name Alfred was popular among Anglo-Saxon royalty and was borne by several English kings, including the celebrated King Alfred the Great (849-899), who defended his kingdom from Norse invaders and helped revive learning and literacy in England.
The diminutive form Alfie first emerged in the 19th century as a pet form of Alfred, particularly in northern England and Scotland. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Alfie is found in the 1841 census of England and Wales, where a young boy named Alfie Warburton is listed as residing in Lancashire.
Throughout history, the name Alfie has been borne by several notable individuals, including Alfie Byrne (1882-1956), an Irish politician who served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1930 to 1934; Alfie Bass (1916-1987), a British character actor known for his roles in films such as A Clockwork Orange and The Elephant Man; and Alfie Hewett (born 1997), a British wheelchair tennis player and multiple-time Grand Slam champion.
In literature, the name Alfie gained prominence through the novel Alfie by Bill Naughton (1966), which was later adapted into a successful film starring Michael Caine in the title role. The story follows the exploits of a womanizing working-class man in 1960s London, and the film helped popularize the name Alfie in the latter half of the 20th century.
Another notable bearer of the name was Alfie Dennen (1909-1959), a British painter and etcher who was part of the neo-romantic movement in British art during the mid-20th century. His works often depicted scenes of rural life and landscapes, capturing the essence of the English countryside.
While the name Alfie has its origins in Old English and Anglo-Saxon culture, it has since become a popular choice across various English-speaking countries, particularly in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Its enduring appeal can be attributed to its friendly and approachable sound, as well as its connection to the beloved literary and cinematic character Alfie.
People
Alfie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alfie 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
Alfie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alfie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 976 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alfie 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 351,183 US residents.
Is Alfie a common name?
We classify Alfie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,104 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alfie most popular?
The single biggest year for Alfie was 2024, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alfie is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alfie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 874 people with the name Alfie, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,712 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 Alfie 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 Alfie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alfie leans strongly male. 727 people counted with this name were male (82.1%), compared with 158 female bearers (17.9%). 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 Alfie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alfie is White at 38.1%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (22.8%). 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 Alfie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alfie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.1% (333 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 Alfie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alfie a male name?
Yes, 88.4% of people registered as Alfie in the SSA data are male. 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 Alfie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alfie 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 Alfie 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 are named Alfie?
Find out how many people share the name Alfie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.