Alphonzo
A masculine name of Spanish origin meaning "noble and ready".
Name Census estimates that about 1,405 living Americans carry the first name Alphonzo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alphonzo today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alphonzo births was 1963 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alphonzo. 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
1.4K
~ 1 in 243,953 Americans
Peak year
1963
43 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,917
Tracked since 1895
Census
Alphonzo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,011 people with the first name Alphonzo, which placed it at #12,344 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
#12,344
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,011 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alphonzo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alphonzo is Black at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.2% · 851
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 92
- Two or more races3.1% · 31
- White2.5% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 2
Popularity
Alphonzo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alphonzo from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 328 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alphonzos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Alphonzo, while Virginia, Illinois, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alphonzo
The name Alphonzo has its origins in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, derived from the Germanic name Alfonso. It emerged during the medieval period, around the 8th to 10th centuries CE, in the Iberian Peninsula.
Alphonzo is a variant of the name Alfonso, which itself is derived from the Gothic name Adefuns or Alfuns. This name is composed of the Germanic elements "alf" meaning "ready" or "willing" and "funs" meaning "man" or "fighter." The name carries connotations of bravery and valor.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alphonzo can be found in the 12th century, when it was borne by Alphonzo I, also known as Alfonso I or Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal. He reigned from 1139 to 1185 and is renowned for his military campaigns against the Moors and the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal.
Another notable bearer of the name was Alphonzo Taft, an American jurist and politician who served as the 27th United States Secretary of War and the 21st United States Attorney General. He was born in 1810 and passed away in 1891.
In literature, the name Alphonzo appears in the 18th-century novel "The History of Sir Charles Grandison" by Samuel Richardson. The character Alphonzo is portrayed as a noble and virtuous man.
Alphonzo Gardiner was an American artist and painter born in 1838 and known for his landscape and portrait works. He was a member of the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement.
Alphonzo de Lamartine, a French writer, poet, and statesman, was born in 1790 and died in 1869. He was a prominent figure in the French Romantic movement and served briefly as a member of the Second Republic's provisional government in 1848.
While the name Alphonzo has been used throughout history, it has largely fallen out of widespread use in modern times. However, its rich historical and cultural heritage, with connections to royalty, literature, and the arts, make it a unique and distinctive name with a fascinating background.
People
Alphonzo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alphonzo 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
Alphonzo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alphonzo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,405 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alphonzo 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 243,953 US residents.
Is Alphonzo a common name?
We classify Alphonzo as "Rare". It ranks above 92.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,031 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alphonzo most popular?
The single biggest year for Alphonzo was 1963, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alphonzo is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alphonzo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,011 people with the name Alphonzo, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,344 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 Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alphonzo appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,005 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Alphonzo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alphonzo is Black at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Alphonzo most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alphonzo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.2% (851 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 Alphonzo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alphonzo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo 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 Alphonzo?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Alphonzo at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.