Alain
Alain was given to 44 boys in 2025, #2,835 among boys’ names; 3,986 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,700 Americans named Alain and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 18 and 45.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alain by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alain mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alain is “a male given name from French, equivalent to English Alan.”
Borrowed from French Alain.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alain?
#2,835 among boys’ names, 2025
Alain fell from #2,300 in 2015 to #2,835 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 29.7 to 25.8 per million.
92 babies in 1988, the peak
Alain peaked in 1988, when 92 boys were given it, #1,021 among boys’ names. The 44 births of 2025 are 48% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 44 | #2,835 | 25.8 |
| 2024 | 37 | #3,217 | 21.5 |
| 2023 | 51 | #2,578 | 29.8 |
| 2022 | 49 | #2,674 | 28.1 |
| 2021 | 47 | #2,694 | 26.9 |
| 2020 | 48 | #2,619 | 27.8 |
| 2019 | 49 | #2,626 | 27.3 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,231 | 33.6 |
| 2017 | 55 | #2,346 | 29.7 |
| 2016 | 55 | #2,366 | 29.0 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 57 | #2,300 | 29.7 |
| 2014 | 51 | #2,460 | 26.6 |
| 2013 | 74 | #1,902 | 39.1 |
| 2012 | 64 | #2,103 | 33.7 |
| 2011 | 63 | #2,104 | 33.2 |
| 2010 | 54 | #2,354 | 28.1 |
| 2009 | 57 | #2,288 | 28.7 |
| 2008 | 61 | #2,185 | 29.9 |
| 2007 | 68 | #2,036 | 32.8 |
| 2006 | 73 | #1,855 | 35.5 |
| 2005 | 72 | #1,799 | 36.0 |
| 2004 | 60 | #1,986 | 30.2 |
| 2003 | 81 | #1,559 | 41.0 |
| 2002 | 63 | #1,814 | 32.4 |
| 2001 | 67 | #1,707 | 34.5 |
| 2000 | 54 | #1,923 | 27.5 |
| 1999 | 60 | #1,717 | 31.2 |
| 1998 | 59 | #1,717 | 30.9 |
| 1997 | 67 | #1,532 | 35.5 |
| 1996 | 62 | #1,583 | 32.7 |
| 1995 | 69 | #1,425 | 36.2 |
| 1994 | 51 | #1,729 | 26.4 |
| 1993 | 81 | #1,256 | 41.3 |
| 1992 | 71 | #1,335 | 35.5 |
| 1991 | 79 | #1,249 | 39.1 |
| 1990 | 77 | #1,254 | 37.5 |
| 1989 | 80 | #1,193 | 40.0 |
| 1988 | 92 | #1,021 | 48.1 |
| 1987 | 89 | #1,003 | 47.7 |
| 1986 | 80 | #1,040 | 43.4 |
| 1985 | 83 | #997 | 44.9 |
| 1984 | 74 | #1,032 | 41.0 |
| 1983 | 70 | #1,059 | 39.1 |
| 1982 | 69 | #1,096 | 38.0 |
| 1981 | 52 | #1,271 | 29.0 |
| 1980 | 49 | #1,343 | 27.5 |
| 1979 | 36 | #1,598 | 20.9 |
| 1978 | 43 | #1,410 | 26.2 |
| 1977 | 47 | #1,312 | 28.6 |
| 1976 | 66 | #1,019 | 42.1 |
| 1975 | 50 | #1,191 | 32.0 |
| 1974 | 45 | #1,244 | 28.6 |
| 1973 | 39 | #1,329 | 25.0 |
| 1972 | 42 | #1,285 | 25.9 |
| 1971 | 46 | #1,215 | 26.0 |
| 1970 | 43 | #1,261 | 23.1 |
| 1969 | 42 | #1,221 | 23.5 |
| 1968 | 35 | #1,283 | 20.1 |
| 1967 | 46 | #1,088 | 26.4 |
| 1966 | 32 | #1,344 | 17.9 |
| 1965 | 32 | #1,359 | 17.2 |
| 1964 | 47 | #1,113 | 23.6 |
| 1963 | 37 | #1,279 | 18.2 |
| 1962 | 35 | #1,311 | 16.9 |
| 1961 | 23 | #1,686 | 10.8 |
| 1960 | 29 | #1,485 | 13.6 |
| 1959 | 25 | #1,587 | 11.7 |
| 1958 | 21 | #1,724 | 9.9 |
| 1957 | 23 | #1,672 | 10.7 |
| 1956 | 24 | #1,608 | 11.3 |
| 1955 | 15 | #2,048 | 7.3 |
| 1954 | 15 | #2,043 | 7.4 |
| 1953 | 22 | #1,630 | 11.2 |
| 1952 | 6 | #3,374 | 3.1 |
| 1951 | 13 | #2,135 | 6.9 |
| 1950 | 19 | #1,700 | 10.6 |
| 1949 | 11 | #2,338 | 6.2 |
| 1948 | 12 | #2,218 | 6.8 |
| 1947 | 12 | #2,251 | 6.6 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,690 | 4.9 |
| 1944 | 5 | #3,434 | 3.7 |
| 1942 | 5 | #3,567 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alain a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alain has been given almost only to boys: 6 girls in 82 years of records.
Girls and boys named Alain: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alain, and how old are they?
3,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 3,986 Americans ever recorded as Alain. The median Alain alive today is 32 years old; half are between 18 and 45.
The 2020 Census counted 8,688 people named Alain (168 women and girls, 8,520 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,516 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 4 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 278 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 619 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,120 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 673 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Alain born?
The states with the most babies named Alain are Texas, Florida and California, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,557 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 10 | #1,191 | 4.4× |
| California | 5 | #2,485 | 1.2× |
Where Alain is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alain is most over-represented in Florida: since 1942 it was given 4.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Alain with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 748,165 babies since 1880, Alain is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 44 of their 2,822 babies (1.6%), again the fifth most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Alain
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Alain and names like it
- Compare Alain and AlanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sAlain peaked in 1988.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alain since 1910.
- French namesWiktionary’s origin for Alain: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Alain.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Alain alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with AMost given first.