Alli
A feminine name of German origin meaning "noble, exalted."
Name Census estimates that about 3,713 living Americans carry the first name Alli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alli today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alli births was 2011 (205 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alli. 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 Alli with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 92,312 Americans
Peak year
2011
205 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2003 SSA rank
#4,880
Tracked since 1916
Census
Alli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,787 people with the first name Alli, which placed it at #4,048 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
#4,048
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,787 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alli is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (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 Alli 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 Alli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.6% · 3,953
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 334
- Two or more races4.0% · 193
- Black or African American3.1% · 147
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 122
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 38
Gender
Gender distribution for Alli
Out of the 3,792 babies given the name Alli since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Alli as a male name
- Ranked #10,956 in 2003
- 5 male births in 2003
- Peak: 2003 (5 births)
Alli as a female name
- Ranked #4,880 in 2024
- 27 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (205 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alli leans strongly female. 4,603 people counted with this name were female (96.1%), compared with 186 male bearers (3.9%).
Popularity
Alli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alli from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,511 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alli 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 Alli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Allis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, Ohio recorded the most babies named Alli, while Maryland, Idaho, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alli
The name Alli is of Germanic origin and is a diminutive form of several names such as Alice, Alicia, and Alix. Its earliest roots can be traced back to the Old High German name Adalhaidis, derived from the elements "adal" meaning noble and "haid" meaning kind or sort.
In the Middle Ages, the name Alli gained popularity as a nickname for longer Germanic names like Adelheid and Aleidis. It was particularly common in regions like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland during this time period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alli can be found in the Codex Traditionum Antiquarum, a medieval cartulary from the Benedictine abbey of Reichenau in present-day Germany. This document, dating back to the 9th century, mentions a woman named Alli among the abbey's landowners and benefactors.
Another notable historical figure with the name Alli was Alli, the daughter of the 9th-century Carolingian king Louis the Pious. She was born around 825 and was betrothed to the Lombard prince Siconulf at a young age, though the marriage was ultimately called off.
In the 11th century, a nun named Alli von Reute gained recognition for her religious writings and spiritual teachings. She was born in the German region of Swabia around 1020 and became a member of the Benedictine convent in Reute, where she wrote several theological treatises and letters.
During the Renaissance period, an Italian artist named Alli di Bartolomeo Cione, also known as Allori, became renowned for his paintings and frescoes. He was born in Florence in 1535 and was a prominent member of the Florentine School of painters.
In more recent history, Alli Berman, an American actress and singer, gained popularity for her roles in several Broadway musicals and television shows. She was born in 1952 and has appeared in productions like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera.
People
Alli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alli 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
Alli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,713 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alli 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 92,312 US residents.
Is Alli a common name?
We classify Alli as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,792 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alli most popular?
The single biggest year for Alli was 2011, when 205 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alli is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,787 people with the name Alli, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,048 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 Alli 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 Alli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alli leans strongly female. 4,603 people counted with this name were female (96.1%), compared with 186 male bearers (3.9%). 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 Alli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alli is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (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 Alli most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.6% (3,953 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 Alli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alli a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Alli 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 Alli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alli 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 Alli 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 called Alli?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.