Alvester
An English masculine name derived from a combination of Germanic elements.
Name Census estimates that about 254 living Americans carry the first name Alvester. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alvester today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alvester births was 1948 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alvester. 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 Alvester is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Alvesters were born before 1967.
People living today
254
~ 1 in 1,349,427 Americans
Peak year
1948
16 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1990 SSA rank
#8,152
Tracked since 1915
Census
Alvester in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 224 people with the first name Alvester, which placed it at #35,741 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
#35,741
National first-name rank
People counted
224
224 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
95.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alvester
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvester is Black at 95.5%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.3%). 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 Alvester 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 Alvester at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American95.5% · 214
- White2.2% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 1
- Two or more races0.4% · 1
Popularity
Alvester: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alvester 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 108 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
Alvester 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 Alvester during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alvesters live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alvester
The name Alvester is an old English name that originated in the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old English words "aelf" meaning "elf" and "ster" meaning "star." The name likely referred to someone who was considered to have a bright, star-like personality or was associated with elves or fairies in some way.
Alvester was a relatively uncommon name during the Anglo-Saxon era, but it did appear in some historical records and manuscripts from that time period. One of the earliest known mentions of the name was in the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, a collection of Anglo-Saxon charters and documents from the 7th to 11th centuries.
In the Middle Ages, the name Alvester became even less common, but there are a few notable historical figures who bore this name. One of the most famous was Alvester de Burgh, a 13th-century English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III. He was born around 1210 and died in 1275.
Another individual with this name was Alvester Clifton, a 15th-century English clergyman who served as the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1424 to 1427. He was born in the late 14th century, but the exact year is unknown.
In the 16th century, there was an Alvester Mosley, an English courtier and Member of Parliament who lived from around 1510 to 1572. He served under Queen Elizabeth I and was known for his loyalty to the Protestant cause during the Reformation.
A more recent figure with the name Alvester was Alvester Holloway, an American Civil War soldier who fought for the Union Army. He was born in 1840 in Kentucky and served in the 16th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
The name Alvester has remained very rare throughout history, and there are few other notable individuals who have borne it. However, its unique combination of Old English elements and its connection to Anglo-Saxon culture make it an interesting and intriguing name with a rich historical background.
People
Alvester + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alvester 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
Alvester: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alvester?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 254 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alvester 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 1,349,427 US residents.
Is Alvester a common name?
We classify Alvester as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 490 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alvester most popular?
The single biggest year for Alvester was 1948, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alvester 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 Alvester in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 224 people with the name Alvester, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,741 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 Alvester 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 Alvester?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alvester leans strongly male. 208 people counted with this name were male (88.5%), compared with 27 female bearers (11.5%). 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 Alvester?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alvester is Black at 95.5%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.3%). 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 Alvester most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Alvester in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.5% (214 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 Alvester in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alvester a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alvester 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 Alvester still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alvester 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 Alvester 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 Alvester?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.