Alireza
A masculine name of Persian origin meaning "high servant of God".
Name Census estimates that about 225 living Americans carry the first name Alireza. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alireza today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alireza births was 1980 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alireza. 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 Alireza with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
225
~ 1 in 1,523,353 Americans
Peak year
1980
19 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2019 SSA rank
#12,222
Tracked since 1977
Census
Alireza in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,750 people with the first name Alireza, which placed it at #5,986 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
#5,986
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,750 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alireza
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alireza is White at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (12.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%). 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 Alireza 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 Alireza at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.1% · 2,284
- Two or more races12.2% · 335
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 109
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 16
- Black or African American0.2% · 6
Popularity
Alireza: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alireza from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 96 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Alireza remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alireza 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 Alireza during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alirezas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alireza
The name Alireza has its origins in the Persian language, which is spoken in Iran and parts of Central Asia. It is a combination of two Persian words: "Ali" and "Reza."
Ali is a popular name in the Islamic world, derived from the name of Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the fourth caliph of Islam. The name Ali is believed to have been derived from the Arabic word "al-ali," meaning "the exalted one" or "the highest."
Reza, on the other hand, is a Persian name meaning "satisfaction" or "contentment." It is a shortened form of the name Abdur Reza, which means "servant of the satisfier" or "servant of the contented one."
The name Alireza has been in use for centuries in the Persian-speaking world, and it has been borne by several notable historical figures. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Alireza Qomi, a renowned Persian scholar and poet who lived in the 15th century.
Another prominent figure with the name Alireza was Alireza Eftekhari, a prominent Iranian philosopher and writer who lived in the 19th century. He is known for his contributions to the intellectual and cultural movements of his time.
In the 20th century, Alireza Pahlavi was a member of the Iranian royal family and the younger son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. He was born in 1966 and lived in exile after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh is a contemporary Iranian professional footballer who currently plays as a striker for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie, the top division of Dutch football. He was born in 1993 and has represented the Iranian national team.
Another notable individual with the name Alireza is Alireza Firouzja, an Iranian chess grandmaster who is widely regarded as one of the brightest young talents in the game. He was born in 2003 and became the youngest ever chess grandmaster from Iran at the age of 14.
People
Alireza + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alireza 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
Alireza: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alireza?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 225 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alireza 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 1,523,353 US residents.
Is Alireza a common name?
We classify Alireza as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 233 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alireza most popular?
The single biggest year for Alireza was 1980, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alireza is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alireza in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,750 people with the name Alireza, or 0.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,986 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 Alireza 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 Alireza?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alireza appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,763 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Alireza?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alireza is White at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (12.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.0%). 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 Alireza most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alireza in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.1% (2,284 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 Alireza in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alireza a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alireza 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 Alireza still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alireza 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 Alireza 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 Alireza?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.