Alvera
Feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "the truthful one".
Name Census estimates that about 374 living Americans carry the first name Alvera. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alvera today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alvera births was 1918 (113 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alvera. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Alvera is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Alveras were born before 1961.
People living today
374
~ 1 in 916,455 Americans
Peak year
1918
113 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
2008 SSA rank
#15,511
Tracked since 1891
Census
Alvera in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 706 people with the first name Alvera, which placed it at #16,084 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
#16,084
National first-name rank
People counted
706
706 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alvera
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvera is White at 58.6%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Hispanic (10.3%). 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 Alvera 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 Alvera at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.6% · 414
- Black or African American21.8% · 154
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 73
- American Indian and Alaska Native5.0% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 15
- Two or more races2.1% · 15
Popularity
Alvera: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alvera from the 1890s through to the 2000s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 854 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
Alvera 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 Alvera during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alveras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the most babies named Alvera, while Massachusetts, Indiana, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alvera
The given name Alvera is a feminine name of Old German origin, derived from the elements "alu" meaning "all" and "wera" meaning "truth" or "honesty." It is believed to have emerged sometime during the Middle Ages, possibly as early as the 8th or 9th century CE.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled variations such as Aluwera, Aluvera, or Alwera. It gained popularity in various Germanic regions, particularly in areas that are now part of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alvera can be found in the Codex Traditionum Corbeiensium, a medieval cartulary from the Benedictine abbey of Corvey in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This document, dating back to the 9th century, mentions an individual named Alvera who was a landowner in the region.
Throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance period, the name Alvera was borne by several notable individuals. One such figure was Alvera von Isenburg (c. 1270 - c. 1330), a German noblewoman and abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Hildegard in Rüdesheim, Germany.
In the 15th century, Alvera Batt (c. 1420 - 1490) was a German herbalist and apothecary who gained recognition for her medicinal knowledge and expertise in natural remedies. Her name appears in several historical records from the city of Nuremberg.
Moving into the 16th century, Alvera Scholastica (c. 1505 - 1572) was a Benedictine nun and author from Bavaria, Germany. She is known for her writings on religious topics and her contributions to the intellectual life of her convent.
Another notable figure with the name Alvera was Alvera von Vitzthum (c. 1580 - 1642), a German noblewoman and philanthropist who established several charitable foundations and supported educational initiatives in her region.
While the name Alvera has its roots in the Germanic cultural sphere, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of Europe and beyond. For example, Alvera Mickelsen (1908 - 2007) was an American dietitian and advocate for vegetarian diets, who played a significant role in promoting healthier eating habits in the United States.
People
Alvera + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alvera 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
Alvera: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alvera?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 374 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alvera 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 916,455 US residents.
Is Alvera a common name?
We classify Alvera as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,516 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alvera most popular?
The single biggest year for Alvera was 1918, when 113 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alvera is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alvera in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 706 people with the name Alvera, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,084 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 Alvera 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 Alvera?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alvera leans strongly female. 698 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Alvera?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvera is White at 58.6%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Hispanic (10.3%). 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 Alvera most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alvera in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.6% (414 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 Alvera in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alvera a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alvera 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 Alvera still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alvera 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 Alvera 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 Alvera?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Alvera at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.