Alven
Alven was last recorded in 2012, when 5 babies were given it; 462 Americans have been recorded with it between 1905 and 2012 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Alven by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Alven mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Alven is “a male given name from Old English, of rare usage, variant of Alvin.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Alven?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,354, in 2012; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
20 babies in 1922, the peak
Alven peaked in 1922, when 20 boys were given it, #1,768 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 5 | #12,354 | 2.6 |
| 2009 | 5 | #12,571 | 2.5 |
| 2004 | 5 | #11,418 | 2.5 |
| 1997 | 5 | #9,307 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 5 | #6,557 | 2.7 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,006 | 3.1 |
| 1964 | 5 | #4,058 | 2.5 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,050 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,628 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,003 | 2.3 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | 5 | #3,952 | 2.4 |
| 1954 | 8 | #2,946 | 3.9 |
| 1952 | 5 | #3,749 | 2.6 |
| 1951 | 12 | #2,248 | 6.4 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,308 | 3.4 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,696 | 4.9 |
| 1945 | 7 | #2,749 | 5.2 |
| 1944 | 10 | #2,312 | 7.3 |
| 1943 | 10 | #2,407 | 7.0 |
| 1942 | 7 | #2,946 | 5.1 |
| 1941 | 11 | #2,208 | 9.0 |
| 1940 | 8 | #2,673 | 6.9 |
| 1939 | 12 | #2,055 | 10.8 |
| 1938 | 13 | #1,983 | 11.7 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,184 | 5.6 |
| 1936 | 15 | #1,802 | 14.5 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,659 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 13 | #2,025 | 12.6 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,371 | 10.1 |
| 1931 | 11 | #2,331 | 10.6 |
| 1930 | 11 | #2,448 | 10.0 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,203 | 12.1 |
| 1928 | 17 | #1,903 | 15.3 |
| 1927 | 14 | #2,201 | 12.4 |
| 1926 | 12 | #2,437 | 10.8 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,591 | 9.9 |
| 1924 | 15 | #2,135 | 13.2 |
| 1923 | 11 | #2,619 | 10.0 |
| 1922 | 20 | #1,768 | 18.4 |
| 1921 | 14 | #2,267 | 12.7 |
| 1920 | 11 | #2,606 | 10.3 |
| 1919 | 13 | #2,268 | 13.3 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,545 | 10.9 |
| 1917 | 12 | #2,281 | 13.0 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,392 | 12.4 |
| 1915 | 12 | #2,186 | 14.1 |
| 1913 | 6 | #2,505 | 11.7 |
| 1912 | 5 | #2,552 | 11.6 |
| 1907 | 5 | #1,351 | 34.1 |
| 1905 | 5 | #1,237 | 37.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Alven a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Alven has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Alven: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Alven, and how old are they?
An estimated 104 Americans named Alven and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (22% of everyone recorded); the median is 72 years old and half are between 54 and 82. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 231 people named Alven (5 women and girls, 226 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 140 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 164,240 babies since 1880, Alven is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 294 babies recorded by SSA was a Alven (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 Alven
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 Alven and names like it
- Compare Alven and AlvinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sAlven peaked in 1922.
- Missouri’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Alven since 1910.
- The top names of 1922The year the most babies were named Alven.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Alven alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with AMost given first.