Alf — boys' name

What the Data Says About Alf

The Social Security Administration has registered 1,130 babies named Alf between 1880 and 1979, spanning 100 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Alf currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 1979. The name reached its historical peak in 1916, when 38 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Alf performed strongest in the 1910s, accumulating 270 births during that ten-year window. Across the 10 decades of recorded activity, Alf shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Minnesota, which accounts for 33 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by New York and North Dakota. In total, SSA state-level files list Alf in 7 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Alf in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 1,130 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.