Alley
Alley was given to 8 girls in 2025, #10,968 among girls’ names; 1,120 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,060 Americans named Alley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 14 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alley is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alley?
#10,968 among girls’ names, 2025
Alley fell from #5,293 in 2015 to #10,968 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 14.0 to 5.0 per million.
66 babies in 2006, the peak
Alley peaked in 2006, when 66 girls were given it, #2,704 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 12% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #10,968 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 11 | #8,964 | 6.8 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,357 | 5.6 |
| 2022 | 11 | #9,090 | 6.7 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,328 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 19 | #6,091 | 11.8 |
| 2019 | 15 | #7,364 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 17 | #6,802 | 10.0 |
| 2017 | 20 | #6,057 | 11.6 |
| 2016 | 24 | #5,453 | 13.5 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 25 | #5,293 | 14.0 |
| 2014 | 31 | #4,550 | 17.4 |
| 2013 | 35 | #4,162 | 19.9 |
| 2012 | 39 | #3,920 | 22.1 |
| 2011 | 45 | #3,497 | 25.6 |
| 2010 | 39 | #3,892 | 21.9 |
| 2009 | 48 | #3,414 | 26.1 |
| 2008 | 40 | #3,940 | 21.2 |
| 2007 | 53 | #3,214 | 27.6 |
| 2006 | 66 | #2,704 | 34.7 |
| 2005 | 47 | #3,261 | 25.4 |
| 2004 | 59 | #2,740 | 32.1 |
| 2003 | 48 | #3,082 | 26.3 |
| 2002 | 40 | #3,392 | 22.3 |
| 2001 | 38 | #3,485 | 21.1 |
| 2000 | 21 | #5,314 | 11.6 |
| 1999 | 46 | #2,893 | 25.9 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,929 | 24.9 |
| 1997 | 23 | #4,514 | 13.2 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,070 | 8.6 |
| 1995 | 26 | #3,973 | 14.8 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,015 | 10.6 |
| 1993 | 18 | #5,207 | 9.9 |
| 1992 | 8 | #9,511 | 4.3 |
| 1991 | 15 | #5,951 | 8.0 |
| 1990 | 20 | #4,697 | 10.5 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,162 | 7.1 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,406 | 4.5 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,799 | 6.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Alley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,120 Americans recorded as Alley, 96% are girls and 4% boys. In 2025 it went to 8 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Alley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alley, and how old are they?
1,060 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,120 Americans ever recorded as Alley. The median Alley alive today is 20 years old; half are between 14 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 1,542 people named Alley (1,440 women and girls, 102 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,002 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 139 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 689 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 233 |
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).
How common is the spelling Alley?
Alley is a less common spelling of Allie: SSA has recorded 1,120 Alley and 56,372 Allie since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 81,191 babies since 1880, Alley is the eighth most given (1.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 868 babies (<1%), again the eighth 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 Alley
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 Alley and names like it
- Compare Alley and AllieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAlley peaked in 2006.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alley since 1910.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Alley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Alley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.