Alto
Alto was last recorded in 1991, when 5 babies were given it; 592 Americans have been recorded with it between 1881 and 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alto by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Alto?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #8,262, in 1991; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
21 babies in 1917, the peak
Alto peaked in 1917, when 21 babies were given it (16 boys, #1,901 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 5 | #8,262 | 2.5 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,495 | 3.3 |
| 1976 | 6 | #4,951 | 3.8 |
| 1970 | 7 | #3,850 | 3.8 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,656 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,649 | 2.9 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,048 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,566 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 8 | #3,028 | 3.7 |
| 1956 | 8 | #2,979 | 3.8 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 7 | #3,206 | 3.4 |
| 1953 | 6 | #3,431 | 3.0 |
| 1952 | 6 | #3,384 | 3.1 |
| 1951 | 9 | #2,667 | 4.8 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,332 | 3.4 |
| 1949 | 10 | #2,456 | 5.6 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,688 | 2.8 |
| 1946 | 5 | #3,539 | 3.1 |
| 1945 | 8 | #2,574 | 5.9 |
| 1943 | 8 | #2,742 | 5.6 |
| 1942 | 8 | #2,714 | 5.8 |
| 1940 | 11 | #2,182 | 9.5 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,489 | 4.5 |
| 1938 | 6 | #3,184 | 5.4 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,183 | 5.6 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,157 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 11 | #2,249 | 10.6 |
| 1934 | 10 | #2,397 | 9.7 |
| 1933 | 8 | #2,741 | 8.1 |
| 1932 | 8 | #2,853 | 7.7 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,102 | 6.7 |
| 1930 | 10 | #2,612 | 9.1 |
| 1929 | 10 | #2,597 | 9.3 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,083 | 7.2 |
| 1927 | 14 | #2,200 | 12.4 |
| 1926 | 13 | #2,304 | 11.7 |
| 1925 | 15 | #2,093 | 13.4 |
| 1924 | 11 | #2,646 | 9.7 |
| 1923 | 15 | #2,123 | 13.7 |
| 1922 | 12 | #2,490 | 11.0 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,154 | 13.6 |
| 1920 | 16 | #2,053 | 15.0 |
| 1919 | 20 | #1,696 | 20.4 |
| 1918 | 16 | #2,001 | 15.8 |
| 1917 | 16 | #1,901 | 17.3 |
| 1916 | 17 | #1,773 | 19.1 |
| 1915 | 18 | #1,661 | 21.2 |
| 1914 | 16 | #1,548 | 24.4 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,278 | 13.7 |
| 1912 | 13 | #1,355 | 30.2 |
| 1911 | 7 | #1,391 | 31.0 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,065 | 46.8 |
| 1900 | 5 | #1,317 | 33.2 |
| 1899 | 6 | #932 | 56.5 |
| 1897 | 8 | #788 | 70.9 |
| 1895 | 8 | #799 | 68.1 |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,083 | 43.2 |
| 1892 | 6 | #958 | 49.2 |
| 1890 | 7 | #815 | 63.0 |
| 1889 | 6 | #881 | 54.3 |
| 1887 | 5 | #933 | 49.3 |
| 1886 | 6 | #848 | 54.2 |
| 1881 | 5 | #868 | 49.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alto a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 592 Americans recorded as Alto, 5% are girls and 95% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Alto: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alto, and how old are they?
An estimated 104 Americans named Alto and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (18% of everyone recorded); the median is 71 years old and half are between 63 and 78. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 241 people named Alto (16 women and girls, 225 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 138 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Alto rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 Alto born?
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 155 | not ranked | 11.3× |
| Georgia | 5 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Alto is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alto is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1910 it was given 11.3 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 Alto 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 657 babies since 1880, Alto is the most given (90% of them).
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 Alto
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 Alto and names like it
- Compare Alto and AltayBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sAlto peaked in 1917.
- Alabama’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alto since 1910.
- The top names of 1917The year the most babies were named Alto.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Alto alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with AMost given first.