Arlis
A name of Germanic origin meaning "pledge of truth" or "oath".
Name Census estimates that about 1,176 living Americans carry the first name Arlis. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 71.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Arlis today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arlis births was 1931 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arlis. 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 Arlis with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 291,458 Americans
Peak year
1931
69 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,062
Tracked since 1906
Census
Arlis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,382 people with the first name Arlis, which placed it at #9,859 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
#9,859
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,382 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arlis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arlis is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Arlis 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 Arlis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 1,125
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 109
- Black or African American5.0% · 69
- Two or more races3.1% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Arlis
Arlis is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,746 total registrations, 1,949 (71.0%) were male and 797 (29.0%) were female.
Arlis as a male name
- Ranked #5,062 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1931 (48 births)
Arlis as a female name
- Ranked #17,836 in 2008
- 5 female births in 2008
- Peak: 1935 (37 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arlis on both sides of the split. Of the 1,382 people counted with this name, 838 were male (60.6%) and 544 were female (39.4%).
Popularity
Arlis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arlis from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 637 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arlis 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 Arlis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arlis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Arlis, while West Virginia, Nebraska, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arlis
The name Arlis is believed to have its origins in the ancient Germanic language. It is thought to be a combination of the Old German words "ari" meaning "eagle" and "lisi" meaning "protection" or "guardian." The name is therefore believed to have originally meant something along the lines of "one who is protected like an eagle" or "guardian eagle."
In some early historical records from the Germanic regions of Europe, variations of the name such as "Arlise" and "Arlisia" can be found. These were likely early spellings of the name before standardized spellings became more common. The name seems to have been used more frequently in certain areas like modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of Scandinavia during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest known records of the name dates back to the 8th century. An Arlisia is mentioned as being a nun in the Benedictine monastery of Fulda in what is now central Germany during the reign of the Frankish king Charlemagne. A few centuries later in the 11th century, an Arlis is recorded as being a monk and scholar at the monastery of Reichenau on Lake Constance.
Throughout the centuries, the name does not appear to have been particularly widespread but pops up in various historical accounts across different regions. An Arlisia from the Dutch town of Utrecht is recorded as having traveled to Rome on a pilgrimage in the early 13th century. Around 1400, an Arlis was a merchant and member of the Hanseatic League based in the city of Hamburg.
In the 16th century, an Italian noblewoman named Arlis Ricci lived in Florence and was a patron of the arts during the Renaissance, commissioning works from artists of the time. Moving into more modern times, in the late 18th century, Arlis Müller was a philosopher and professor from Berlin who wrote treatises on ethics and metaphysics. And in the early 20th century, the Swedish explorer Arlis Andersson led expeditions mapping regions of Patagonia in South America.
People
Arlis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arlis 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
Arlis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arlis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,176 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arlis 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 291,458 US residents.
Is Arlis a common name?
We classify Arlis as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,746 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arlis most popular?
The single biggest year for Arlis was 1931, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arlis is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arlis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,382 people with the name Arlis, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,859 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 Arlis 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 Arlis?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arlis on both sides of the split. Of the 1,382 people counted with this name, 838 were male (60.6%) and 544 were female (39.4%). 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 Arlis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arlis is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Arlis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arlis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (1,125 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 Arlis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arlis a male name?
Yes, 71.0% of people registered as Arlis 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 Arlis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arlis 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 Arlis 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 Arlis as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Arlis on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.