Alicia
Of Spanish origin meaning "of noble kind".
Name Census estimates that about 206,094 living Americans carry the first name Alicia. It sits at #436 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alicia today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alicia births was 1984 (7,852 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alicia. 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 Alicia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alicia is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 707 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
206K
~ 1 in 1,663 Americans
Peak year
1984
7,852 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2005 SSA rank
#436
Tracked since 1881
Census
Alicia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 242,748 people with the first name Alicia, which placed it at #230 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
#230
National first-name rank
People counted
243K
242,748 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
80.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alicia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alicia is White at 42.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.7%) and Black (12.7%). 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 Alicia 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 Alicia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.0% · 101,881
- Hispanic or Latino38.7% · 93,910
- Black or African American12.7% · 30,874
- Two or more races3.2% · 7,673
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 6,689
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1,721
Gender
Gender distribution for Alicia
Out of the 230,811 babies given the name Alicia since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Alicia as a male name
- Ranked #11,531 in 2005
- 5 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1989 (39 births)
Alicia as a female name
- Ranked #436 in 2024
- 708 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (7,819 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alicia appears almost entirely female. Of the 242,747 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Alicia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alicia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 67,248 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alicia 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 Alicia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alicias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Alicia, while Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,451 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alicia
The name Alicia is derived from the Old German name Adaliz, which is a combination of the Germanic elements "adal" meaning "noble" and "lind" meaning "serpent" or "snake." It is a feminine form of the masculine name Adalrico or Alaric. The name Alicia first appeared in the Middle Ages, around the 12th century, as a variant of the name Alice, which was a popular name among the Norman nobility after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
Alicia gained widespread popularity in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, where it is often spelled Alicia. In Italian, it is spelled Alicia or Alizia. The name has been used throughout Europe for centuries, and it can be found in various historical records and literary works from different eras.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alicia is from the 12th century, when it was borne by Alicia de Toni, an Italian noblewoman. In the 13th century, Alicia de Lacy was a prominent English noblewoman and heiress who lived from 1233 to 1311.
During the Renaissance period, Alicia Gonzaga (1594-1654) was an Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts. She was known for her patronage of artists such as Guido Reni and Guercino.
In the 18th century, Alicia Meynell (1782-1859) was an English writer and poet. She was a prominent figure in the literary circles of her time and is remembered for her works such as "Poems" and "The Autobiography of a Working Man."
In the 19th century, Alicia Petit (1876-1953) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who was part of the Catalan Modernist movement. Her works are displayed in various museums and galleries across Spain.
Alicia Markova (1910-2004) was a famous English ballerina who was widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the 20th century. She was a principal dancer with the Ballets Russes and later founded her own company, the Markova-Dolin Ballet Company.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Alicia
People
Alicia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alicia 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
Alicia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alicia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 206,094 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alicia 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 1,663 US residents.
Is Alicia a common name?
We classify Alicia as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 230,811 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alicia most popular?
The single biggest year for Alicia was 1984, when 7,852 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alicia is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alicia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 242,748 people with the name Alicia, or 80.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #230 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 Alicia 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 Alicia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alicia appears almost entirely female. Of the 242,747 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Alicia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alicia is White at 42.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.7%) and Black (12.7%). 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 Alicia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alicia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.0% (101,881 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 Alicia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alicia a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Alicia 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 Alicia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alicia 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 Alicia 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 people have the name Alicia?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Alicia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.