Alphonsa
A feminine variant of the French surname-derived name Alphonse, meaning "prepared for battle".
Name Census estimates that about 149 living Americans carry the first name Alphonsa. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alphonsa today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alphonsa births was 1961 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alphonsa. 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 Alphonsa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Alphonsa is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Alphonsas were born before 1967.
People living today
149
~ 1 in 2,300,365 Americans
Peak year
1961
12 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1991 SSA rank
#7,305
Tracked since 1911
Census
Alphonsa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 236 people with the first name Alphonsa, which placed it at #34,545 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
#34,545
National first-name rank
People counted
236
236 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alphonsa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alphonsa is Black at 51.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (43.6%) and White (3.0%). 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 Alphonsa 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 Alphonsa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.7% · 122
- Asian and Pacific Islander43.6% · 103
- White3.0% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
- Two or more races0.4% · 1
Popularity
Alphonsa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alphonsa from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 84 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alphonsa 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 Alphonsa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alphonsas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alphonsa
The name Alphonsa has its origins in the Late Latin name Alphonsus, which was a Latinized form of the Germanic name Alfuns. This name is composed of the elements "alf" meaning "elf" and "uns" meaning "bear cub." The feminine form Alphonsa emerged as a variant of the masculine name.
Alphonsa was particularly popular in medieval Spain and Portugal, where it was borne by several notable figures. One of the earliest recorded examples was Alphonsa of León (1166-1186), a Leonese infanta and daughter of King Ferdinand II of León and Queen Urraca of Portugal.
In the 13th century, Alphonsa of Aragon (1286-1348) was a Franciscan tertiary who founded the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Lérida, Spain. She was later beatified by the Catholic Church.
Another notable bearer of the name was Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception (1838-1946), an Indian religious sister and first canonized saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. She was born Anna Muttathupadathu in Kerala, India, and is revered for her spiritual writings and miracles attributed to her.
In the realm of literature, Alphonsa is a character in the novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder, published in 1927. She is portrayed as a young woman who falls from the bridge and meets her tragic demise.
A more contemporary figure with the name was Alphonsa Arriba (1913-1979), a Spanish actress and dancer who gained fame for her performances in several Spanish films during the 1940s and 1950s.
While the name Alphonsa is not as common today as it once was, it continues to hold historical significance and serves as a reminder of its rich cultural heritage, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula and parts of India.
People
Alphonsa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alphonsa 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
Alphonsa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alphonsa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alphonsa 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 2,300,365 US residents.
Is Alphonsa a common name?
We classify Alphonsa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 260 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alphonsa most popular?
The single biggest year for Alphonsa was 1961, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alphonsa is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alphonsa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 236 people with the name Alphonsa, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,545 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 Alphonsa 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 Alphonsa?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Alphonsa on both sides of the split. Of the 238 people counted with this name, 122 were male (51.3%) and 116 were female (48.7%). 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 Alphonsa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alphonsa is Black at 51.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (43.6%) and White (3.0%). 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 Alphonsa most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alphonsa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.7% (122 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 Alphonsa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alphonsa a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alphonsa in the SSA data are male. 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 Alphonsa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alphonsa 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 Alphonsa 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 Alphonsa?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.