Alyse
A feminine given name of French origin meaning "noble kind".
Name Census estimates that about 7,103 living Americans carry the first name Alyse. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alyse today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alyse births was 1988 (401 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alyse. 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 Alyse with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.1K
~ 1 in 48,255 Americans
Peak year
1988
401 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,880
Tracked since 1892
Census
Alyse in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,654 people with the first name Alyse, which placed it at #3,231 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
#3,231
National first-name rank
People counted
6.7K
6,654 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alyse
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alyse is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Alyse 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 Alyse at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 4,725
- Black or African American13.0% · 863
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 649
- Two or more races4.5% · 299
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 80
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 38
Popularity
Alyse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alyse from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,892 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alyse 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 Alyse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alyses live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, New York, Michigan recorded the most babies named Alyse, while South Carolina, Nevada, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 141 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alyse
The name Alyse originated from the Old French and Old German languages. It is a feminine form of the name Alis, which derived from the Germanic name Adalais. The name Adalais is composed of two elements, "adal" meaning noble, and "aid" meaning kind or sort. The name Alyse first appeared in the 12th century in medieval France.
Historically, the name Alyse gained popularity during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, particularly in France and Germany. It was a common name among the nobility and upper classes. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name was Alyse de Champagne, a 12th-century French noblewoman and regent of the County of Champagne.
In religious texts, the name Alyse is not found in any major scriptures or sacred writings. However, it is worth noting that Saint Alice or Alicia, whose name is a variant of Alyse, was a 13th-century Cistercian nun and mystic from Belgium.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Alyse. One of the most famous was Alyse de Vere, an English noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She was a prominent landholder and heiress, known for her involvement in legal disputes over land inheritance.
Another notable Alyse was Alyse de Gand, a 14th-century French noblewoman and the mistress of King Edward III of England. She played a significant role in the Anglo-French negotiations during the Hundred Years' War.
In the realm of literature, Alyse is the name of a character in the 14th-century Middle English poem "The Boke of Cupide" by Sir Thomas Clanvowe, a work inspired by the Roman de la Rose.
Other historical figures with the name Alyse include Alyse de Savoie (1285-1323), a French noblewoman and the second wife of John II, Duke of Brittany, and Alyse de Montbéliard (1145-1224), a French noblewoman and the Countess of Auxonne.
The name Alyse has a rich history, originating from Old French and Old German roots, and was particularly popular among the nobility during the Middle Ages in Western Europe. It has been borne by several notable women throughout history, from noblewomen and regents to literary characters.
People
Alyse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alyse 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
Alyse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alyse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alyse 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 48,255 US residents.
Is Alyse a common name?
We classify Alyse as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,617 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alyse most popular?
The single biggest year for Alyse was 1988, when 401 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alyse 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 Alyse in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,654 people with the name Alyse, or 2.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,231 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 Alyse 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 Alyse?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alyse appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,656 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Alyse?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alyse is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Alyse most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alyse in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (4,725 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 Alyse in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alyse a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alyse 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 Alyse still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alyse 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 Alyse 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 Alyse?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.