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Alvera vs Alvin

American parents have registered 162,512 Alvins since 1880, against 2,515 Alveras. Alvin is still ahead, with 294 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alvera against Alvin, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alvera Alvin

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Alvin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1907, when Alvera had 25 and Alvin had 245.

Side by side

  Alvera Alvin
Total US births 2,515162,512
Most in one year 1132,908
Babies in 2025 under 5294
Estimated living today 45073,000
Median age today 7559
Peak year 19181927
Best rank 671st girls66th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked838th
First recorded 18911880
Girls / boys 2,515 / 01,098 / 161,414

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Alveras alive today are over 75; half the Alvins are over 59. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Alvera and Alvin.