Alfonso
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "noble and ready".
Name Census estimates that about 30,023 living Americans carry the first name Alfonso. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alfonso today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alfonso births was 1991 (580 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alfonso. 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 Alfonso with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alfonso is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 115 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,416 Americans
Peak year
1991
580 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#920
Tracked since 1881
Census
Alfonso in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 49,409 people with the first name Alfonso, which placed it at #913 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
#913
National first-name rank
People counted
49K
49,409 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alfonso
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alfonso is Hispanic at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and White (5.4%). 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 Alfonso 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 Alfonso at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino85.5% · 42,239
- Black or African American6.0% · 2,984
- White5.4% · 2,672
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 1,176
- Two or more races0.4% · 200
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 138
Gender
Gender distribution for Alfonso
Out of the 41,353 babies given the name Alfonso since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Alfonso as a male name
- Ranked #920 in 2024
- 251 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (574 births)
Alfonso as a female name
- Ranked #11,549 in 1991
- 6 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1972 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alfonso appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,412 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Alfonso: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alfonso from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,207 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alfonso 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 Alfonso during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alfonsos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Alfonso, while Kentucky, Idaho, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 923 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alfonso
The name Alfonso has its origins in the medieval Iberian Peninsula, derived from the Germanic name Āḷf-funz, meaning "ready for battle." It combines the elements "alf" (elf or supernatural being) and "funz" (ready or willing). The name gained prominence during the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alfonso dates back to the 8th century, when Alfonso I (693-757) ascended to the throne of the Kingdom of Asturias, establishing the first Christian monarchy in the region. His reign marked the beginning of the Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Moorish rule.
In the 11th century, Alfonso VI (1040-1109), known as "The Brave," became the first King of Castile and León, uniting the two powerful kingdoms. His reign saw significant territorial gains against the Moors and the establishment of a code of laws known as the Fuero Juzgo.
The name Alfonso also has religious ties, as it was borne by several Catholic saints, including Alfonso Maria de' Liguori (1696-1787), a renowned theologian and founder of the Redemptorist religious order, who was canonized in 1839.
Among other notable figures, Alfonso X (1221-1284), known as "The Wise," was a prolific ruler of Castile and León, renowned for his patronage of literature, science, and the arts. He oversaw the creation of the Alfonsine Tables, a groundbreaking work in astronomy and navigation.
In the 15th century, Alfonso V (1396-1458), also known as "The Magnanimous," ruled as the King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily. He was a significant patron of the arts and humanism during the Italian Renaissance.
Throughout history, the name Alfonso has been associated with various rulers, intellectuals, and religious figures, reflecting its enduring presence in the Iberian Peninsula and its cultural significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Alfonso
People
Alfonso + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alfonso 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
Alfonso: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alfonso?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 30,023 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alfonso 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 11,416 US residents.
Is Alfonso a common name?
We classify Alfonso as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 41,353 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alfonso most popular?
The single biggest year for Alfonso was 1991, when 580 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alfonso is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alfonso in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 49,409 people with the name Alfonso, or 16.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #913 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 Alfonso 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 Alfonso?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alfonso appears almost entirely male. Of the 49,412 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Alfonso?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alfonso is Hispanic at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and White (5.4%). 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 Alfonso most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Alfonso in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (42,239 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 Alfonso in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alfonso a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Alfonso 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 Alfonso still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alfonso 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 Alfonso 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 Alfonso?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.