Alvin
Derived from the Old English name Ælfwine, meaning "elf friend".
Name Census estimates that about 78,823 living Americans carry the first name Alvin. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Alvin today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alvin births was 1927 (2,908 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alvin. 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
- • Although Alvin is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,098 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
79K
~ 1 in 4,348 Americans
Peak year
1927
2,908 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#791
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Alvin
Out of the 162,206 babies given the name Alvin since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Alvin as a male name
- Ranked #791 in 2024
- 316 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (2,883 births)
Alvin as a female name
- Ranked #10,620 in 1994
- 7 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1929 (30 births)
Popularity
Alvin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alvin from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 27,090 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
Alvin 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 Alvin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alvins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, New York, California recorded the most babies named Alvin, while Vermont, New Hampshire, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,992 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alvin
The name Alvin is derived from the Old English and Old Germanic names Aelfwine and Alvwin. These names are composed of the elements "alf" meaning "elf" and "wine" meaning "friend". The Old English and Old Germanic forms gradually evolved into the modern name Alvin over the centuries.
Alvin can be traced back to the early Middle Ages in parts of what is now England and Germany. It became a relatively common given name among Anglo-Saxons and Germanic peoples during this era. The name carried associations with mythological elves and sprites from Germanic folklore.
One of the earliest known records of the name Alvin appears in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. An entry lists an individual named "Aluuinus" as a landowner in Hertfordshire.
In the 12th century, a monk named Alwin authored the Vita Sancti Birini, an important early biography of Saint Birinus, an apostolic missionary who helped establish Christianity in Wessex. This Alwin has sometimes been confused with the chronicler Alwin of Tewkesbury from around the same time period.
The legendary English outlaw and folk hero Robin Hood had a son named Alwin in some medieval ballads and stories from the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 15th century, the name appeared as "Alwyne" in records associated with the English county of Somerset.
A prominent figure named Alvin Tortor served as the Mayor of London in 1349 during the outbreak of the Black Death pandemic in England. He played a key role in managing the city's response to the crisis.
In the 17th century, the Puritan minister Alvyn Talmadge was born in Suffolk, England in 1607. He later emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and became an influential figure among early settlers in New England.
People
Alvin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alvin 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
Alvin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alvin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 78,823 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alvin 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 4,348 US residents.
Is Alvin a common name?
We classify Alvin as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 162,206 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alvin most popular?
The single biggest year for Alvin was 1927, when 2,908 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alvin is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Alvin a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Alvin 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.
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.