Alvan
A masculine name of French origin meaning "little elf".
Name Census estimates that about 378 living Americans carry the first name Alvan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alvan today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alvan births was 1927 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alvan. 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 Alvan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
378
~ 1 in 906,758 Americans
Peak year
1927
53 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2016 SSA rank
#12,284
Tracked since 1883
Census
Alvan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 615 people with the first name Alvan, which placed it at #17,751 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
#17,751
National first-name rank
People counted
615
615 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alvan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvan is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.2%). 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 Alvan 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 Alvan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.3% · 303
- Black or African American25.5% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.2% · 69
- Hispanic or Latino10.7% · 66
- Two or more races2.4% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 5
Popularity
Alvan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alvan from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 300 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alvan 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 Alvan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alvans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alvan
The name Alvan has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old Norse name Alfvine, which was a compound of the elements "alf" (elf) and "vinr" (friend). It is believed to have emerged sometime around the 9th or 10th century in Scandinavia.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Alvan can be traced back to the 12th century, when it appeared in the Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic book that documents the settlement of Iceland. In this text, Alvan is mentioned as the name of a Norse settler who arrived in Iceland during the late 9th or early 10th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Alvan. One of the earliest was Alvan of Auxerre, a French scholar and theologian who lived in the 9th century and served as the abbot of the monastery of Auxerre. Another prominent figure was Alvan Graham, an American educator and founder of the New England Non-Resistance Society, who lived from 1801 to 1888.
In the realm of literature, Alvan was the name of a character in the novel "The Egoist" by George Meredith, published in 1879. The character, Alvan Derrick, was a charismatic but egotistical Polish nobleman who played a central role in the story.
The name Alvan also has a connection to the American military history. Alvan Cullem Gillem, an American soldier and engineer, served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and later as the Quartermaster General of the United States Army from 1882 to 1892.
Another notable Alvan was Alvan Wentworth Chapman, an American botanist and educator who lived from 1809 to 1899. He made significant contributions to the field of botany and served as the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1875.
While the name Alvan has its roots in ancient Germanic languages, it has been used across various cultures and regions throughout history, with individuals bearing this name leaving their mark in fields ranging from academia and literature to military service and science.
People
Alvan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alvan 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
Alvan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alvan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 378 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alvan 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 906,758 US residents.
Is Alvan a common name?
We classify Alvan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,101 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alvan most popular?
The single biggest year for Alvan was 1927, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alvan is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alvan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 615 people with the name Alvan, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,751 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 Alvan 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 Alvan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alvan leans strongly male. 598 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 12 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Alvan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvan is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.2%). 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 Alvan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alvan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (303 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 Alvan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alvan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alvan 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 Alvan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alvan 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 Alvan 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 are called Alvan?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.