Alaine
A feminine name of French origin meaning "handsome; beautiful woman".
Name Census estimates that about 1,169 living Americans carry the first name Alaine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alaine today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alaine births was 1967 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alaine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Alaine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 293,203 Americans
Peak year
1967
33 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,938
Tracked since 1916
Census
Alaine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,348 people with the first name Alaine, which placed it at #10,033 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,033
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alaine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaine is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Hispanic (8.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Alaine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Alaine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.0% · 944
- Black or African American11.3% · 152
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 113
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.5% · 88
- Two or more races3.3% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 7
Popularity
Alaine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alaine from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 252 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Alaine remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alaine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Alaine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alaines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Alaine, while Illinois, New York, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alaine
The name Alaine is believed to have originated as a variant of the French name Alain, which is itself derived from the Old German name Alan or Allen. This name has its roots in the Germanic word "all," meaning "all" or "whole," and is thought to have been initially used as a nickname for someone of great stature or importance.
The earliest recorded use of the name Alaine dates back to the 12th century in France, where it was primarily used by members of the nobility and upper classes. It is worth noting that during this time, there was a significant overlap between French and English cultures, particularly in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, which may have contributed to the name's eventual spread to other regions.
One of the most notable historical figures to bear the name Alaine was Alain de Lille, a French theologian and poet who lived from around 1128 to 1202. He was renowned for his scholarly works, including De Planctu Naturae (The Complaint of Nature), which explored the themes of love, nature, and morality.
Another prominent individual with the name Alaine was Alain Gerbault, a French sailor and adventurer who lived from 1888 to 1979. He gained fame for his solo circumnavigation of the globe in a small boat, which he accomplished between 1923 and 1929, becoming one of the first individuals to achieve this feat.
In the literary realm, Alain Robbe-Grillet, a French novelist and filmmaker born in 1922 and died in 2008, made significant contributions to the Nouveau Roman (New Novel) movement. His experimental works, such as Les Gommes (The Erasers) and La Jalousie (Jealousy), challenged traditional narrative structures and explored themes of perception and reality.
The name Alaine also has connections to the world of philosophy, with Alain (pseudonym of Émile-Auguste Chartier), a French philosopher and writer who lived from 1868 to 1951. He was known for his simple yet profound writings on ethics, politics, and the human condition, and his works had a lasting impact on French intellectual life.
Finally, in the realm of sports, Alain Prost, a French racing driver born in 1955, achieved great success in Formula One. He won four World Drivers' Championship titles between 1985 and 1993 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time.
People
Alaine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alaine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Alaine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alaine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alaine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 293,203 US residents.
Is Alaine a common name?
We classify Alaine as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,443 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alaine most popular?
The single biggest year for Alaine was 1967, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alaine is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alaine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,348 people with the name Alaine, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,033 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Alaine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Alaine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alaine leans strongly female. 1,312 people counted with this name were female (97.3%), compared with 37 male bearers (2.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Alaine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alaine is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Hispanic (8.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Alaine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alaine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.0% (944 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Alaine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alaine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alaine in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Alaine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alaine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Alaine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Alaine?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.