Alyn
A masculine Welsh name derived from the Old English word "alor", meaning holly tree.
Name Census estimates that about 654 living Americans carry the first name Alyn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 59.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Alyn today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alyn births was 2005 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alyn. 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 Alyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Alyn started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
654
~ 1 in 524,089 Americans
Peak year
2005
38 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2020 SSA rank
#9,612
Tracked since 1928
Census
Alyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 791 people with the first name Alyn, which placed it at #14,777 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
#14,777
National first-name rank
People counted
791
791 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alyn is White at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Alyn 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 Alyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.1% · 396
- Hispanic or Latino31.7% · 251
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 66
- Black or African American6.3% · 50
- Two or more races3.0% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Alyn
Alyn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 785 total registrations, 315 (40.1%) were male and 470 (59.9%) were female.
Alyn as a male name
- Ranked #9,612 in 2020
- 7 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1931 (16 births)
Alyn as a female name
- Ranked #13,532 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (31 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Alyn on both sides of the split. Of the 799 people counted with this name, 306 were male (38.3%) and 493 were female (61.7%).
Popularity
Alyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alyn from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 203 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alyn 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 Alyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alyns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alyn
The name Alyn is believed to have originated from the Welsh language, where it is a variant spelling of the name Alan. The name Alan itself is derived from the Brythonic Celtic name Alen, which means "handsome" or "harmonious." The earliest recorded use of the name Alyn dates back to the 16th century in Wales.
In Welsh mythology, there are references to a figure named Alyn of Dinas Bran, who was a legendary prince and warrior from the 6th century. The name Alyn is also mentioned in several ancient Welsh poems and bardic tales, further solidifying its roots in Welsh culture and history.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Alyn was Alyn ap Rhirid, a Welsh nobleman who lived in the late 12th century and was a member of the powerful Gwynedd dynasty. Another notable figure was Alyn ap Iorwerth, a Welsh prince and military leader who fought against the English in the 13th century.
In the 17th century, there was Alyn Bellingham, an English politician and member of Parliament who was born in 1623. During the same period, Alyn Brodrick was a notable Irish landowner and politician who lived from 1659 to 1728.
Moving into more recent history, Alyn Isham-Smith was a British actor and playwright who lived from 1899 to 1959. He is best known for his work in the theater and for co-founding the Royal Theatre Company in London.
Another notable individual with the name Alyn was Alyn Shipton, a British jazz critic, author, and broadcaster who was born in 1953. He has written extensively on the history of jazz and has hosted several radio programs dedicated to the genre.
While the name Alyn has Welsh roots, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and countries over the centuries. These examples showcase the diverse range of individuals who have borne this name throughout history, from Welsh princes and warriors to English politicians and Irish landowners, as well as more recent figures in the arts and media.
People
Alyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alyn 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
Alyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 654 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alyn 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 524,089 US residents.
Is Alyn a common name?
We classify Alyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 785 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Alyn was 2005, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alyn is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 791 people with the name Alyn, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,777 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 Alyn 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 Alyn?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Alyn on both sides of the split. Of the 799 people counted with this name, 306 were male (38.3%) and 493 were female (61.7%). 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 Alyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alyn is White at 50.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Alyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.1% (396 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 Alyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alyn a female name?
Yes, 59.9% of people registered as Alyn 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 Alyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alyn 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 Alyn 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 Alyn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.