Alvan
Alvan was last recorded in 2016, when 5 babies were given it; 1,101 Americans have been recorded with it between 1883 and 2016 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alvan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Alvan?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,282, in 2016; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
53 babies in 1927, the peak
Alvan peaked in 1927, when 53 boys were given it, #951 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5 | #12,282 | 2.6 |
| 2009 | 5 | #12,570 | 2.5 |
| 2008 | 6 | #11,100 | 2.9 |
| 2007 | 11 | #7,113 | 5.3 |
| 2006 | 6 | #10,731 | 2.9 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,116 | 5.0 |
| 2003 | 6 | #9,617 | 3.0 |
| 1995 | 5 | #8,917 | 2.6 |
| 1990 | 8 | #5,838 | 3.9 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,633 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 7 | #5,350 | 3.8 |
| 1982 | 6 | #5,649 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 6 | #5,546 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,377 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,808 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,142 | 3.7 |
| 1976 | 6 | #4,952 | 3.8 |
| 1975 | 8 | #3,955 | 5.1 |
| 1974 | 8 | #3,847 | 5.1 |
| 1971 | 7 | #3,972 | 4.0 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,371 | 4.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #3,982 | 2.9 |
| 1966 | 5 | #3,959 | 2.8 |
| 1964 | 5 | #4,057 | 2.5 |
| 1962 | 7 | #3,309 | 3.4 |
| 1961 | 12 | #2,417 | 5.6 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,084 | 3.8 |
| 1959 | 9 | #2,826 | 4.2 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,567 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,262 | 3.2 |
| 1956 | 8 | #2,980 | 3.8 |
| 1955 | 8 | #2,970 | 3.9 |
| 1954 | 9 | #2,749 | 4.4 |
| 1953 | 14 | #2,099 | 7.1 |
| 1952 | 11 | #2,376 | 5.7 |
| 1951 | 17 | #1,837 | 9.0 |
| 1950 | 12 | #2,207 | 6.7 |
| 1949 | 23 | #1,544 | 13.0 |
| 1948 | 10 | #2,443 | 5.7 |
| 1947 | 22 | #1,599 | 12.0 |
| 1946 | 14 | #1,949 | 8.6 |
| 1945 | 13 | #1,928 | 9.7 |
| 1944 | 19 | #1,576 | 13.9 |
| 1943 | 20 | #1,578 | 14.0 |
| 1942 | 14 | #1,949 | 10.1 |
| 1941 | 13 | #2,000 | 10.6 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,327 | 8.6 |
| 1939 | 14 | #1,880 | 12.6 |
| 1938 | 14 | #1,902 | 12.6 |
| 1937 | 18 | #1,628 | 16.9 |
| 1936 | 16 | #1,725 | 15.4 |
| 1935 | 18 | #1,656 | 17.3 |
| 1934 | 15 | #1,860 | 14.5 |
| 1933 | 19 | #1,588 | 19.2 |
| 1932 | 32 | #1,198 | 30.6 |
| 1931 | 21 | #1,540 | 20.2 |
| 1930 | 19 | #1,695 | 17.3 |
| 1929 | 27 | #1,380 | 25.1 |
| 1928 | 25 | #1,480 | 22.6 |
| 1927 | 53 | #951 | 47.0 |
| 1926 | 48 | #992 | 43.2 |
| 1925 | 32 | #1,280 | 28.7 |
| 1924 | 28 | #1,415 | 24.7 |
| 1923 | 19 | #1,817 | 17.3 |
| 1922 | 15 | #2,145 | 13.8 |
| 1921 | 26 | #1,476 | 23.6 |
| 1920 | 27 | #1,420 | 25.4 |
| 1919 | 17 | #1,881 | 17.3 |
| 1918 | 29 | #1,314 | 28.6 |
| 1917 | 26 | #1,362 | 28.1 |
| 1916 | 25 | #1,375 | 28.1 |
| 1915 | 23 | #1,411 | 27.1 |
| 1914 | 14 | #1,690 | 21.4 |
| 1913 | 15 | #1,366 | 29.3 |
| 1912 | 13 | #1,356 | 30.2 |
| 1902 | 5 | #1,144 | 40.8 |
| 1883 | 5 | #895 | 47.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alvan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alvan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 77 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Alvan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alvan, and how old are they?
An estimated 324 Americans named Alvan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (30% of everyone recorded); the median is 66 years old and half are between 46 and 77. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 610 people named Alvan (12 women and girls, 598 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 404 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.
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 Alvan born?
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 110 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Alvan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Alvan is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1910 it was given 3.0 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 Alvan 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 164,240 babies since 1880, Alvan is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 294 babies recorded by SSA was a Alvan (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Alvan
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 Alvan and names like it
- Compare Alvan and AlvinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sAlvan peaked in 1927.
- Massachusetts’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alvan since 1910.
- The top names of 1927The year the most babies were named Alvan.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Alvan alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with AMost given first.