Alder
Alder was given to 130 boys in 2025, #1,402 among boys’ names; 1,431 Americans have been recorded with it since 1903 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,390 Americans named Alder and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alder by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Alder?
#1,402 among boys’ names, 2025
Alder rose from #3,153 in 2015 to #1,402 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 18.8 to 76.1 per million.
139 babies in 2025, the peak
Alder peaked in 2025, when 139 babies were given it (130 boys, #1,402 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 129 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 130 | #1,402 | 76.1 |
| 2024 | 129 | #1,423 | 74.9 |
| 2023 | 123 | #1,465 | 71.9 |
| 2022 | 125 | #1,447 | 71.6 |
| 2021 | 115 | #1,529 | 65.7 |
| 2020 | 88 | #1,743 | 51.0 |
| 2019 | 93 | #1,698 | 51.8 |
| 2018 | 71 | #2,029 | 39.1 |
| 2017 | 58 | #2,270 | 31.3 |
| 2016 | 75 | #1,938 | 39.5 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 36 | #3,153 | 18.8 |
| 2014 | 45 | #2,661 | 23.4 |
| 2013 | 27 | #3,754 | 14.3 |
| 2012 | 34 | #3,231 | 17.9 |
| 2011 | 20 | #4,661 | 10.5 |
| 2010 | 26 | #3,896 | 13.6 |
| 2009 | 22 | #4,430 | 11.1 |
| 2008 | 16 | #5,492 | 7.8 |
| 2007 | 22 | #4,377 | 10.6 |
| 2006 | 11 | #6,915 | 5.4 |
| 2005 | 11 | #6,644 | 5.5 |
| 2004 | 18 | #4,603 | 9.1 |
| 2003 | 8 | #7,858 | 4.0 |
| 2002 | 6 | #9,420 | 3.1 |
| 2001 | 11 | #6,016 | 5.7 |
| 2000 | 7 | #8,219 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 7 | #7,579 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 5 | #9,042 | 2.6 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,431 | 3.1 |
| 1985 | 5 | #6,544 | 2.7 |
| 1919 | 7 | #3,396 | 7.1 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,395 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alder a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,431 Americans recorded as Alder, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 9 girls and 130 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Alder: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alder, and how old are they?
1,390 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,431 Americans ever recorded as Alder. The median Alder alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 901 people named Alder (111 women and girls, 790 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 681 born in the U.S. The Census count is 32% above 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 | 1 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 15 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 216 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,160 |
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 Alder born?
The states with the most babies named Alder are Washington, California and Oregon, with 54% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Washington and Oregon are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | 20 | #365 | 4.8× |
| California | 8 | #1,833 | 0.8× |
| Oregon | 7 | #474 | 8.3× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,018 | 0.1× |
| Colorado | 6 | #758 | 1.4× |
| New York | 6 | #1,581 | 0.1× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #927 | 0.2× |
| Texas | 5 | #2,588 | 0.3× |
Where Alder is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alder is most over-represented in Oregon: since 1910 it was given 8.3 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 Alder 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 2,939 babies since 1880, Alder is the second most given (49% of them). In 2025 it was given to 139 of their 165 babies (84%), the most given that year.
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 Alder
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 Alder and names like it
- Compare Alder and AldairBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sAlder peaked in 2025.
- Washington’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alder since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Alder.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Alder alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.