Alger

Alger is the 5,617th most common surname in the United States, shared by 5,968 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 50,100.

By the numbers

People: 5,968
Rank: 5,617th
How common: 1 in 50,100
Per 100,000: 2.0

Where the name comes from

As an English surname, when pronounced with a soft g, from the Middle English personal name Alger, borrowed from Old French Aug(i)er, of Germanic origin, from *Adalgari, composed of *aþal (“noble”) + *gaiʀ (“spear”). Compare Auger.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Alger described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 89.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Black, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Alger

Horatio Alger (1832–1899)American novelist
Russell Alexander Alger (1836–1907)Union Army general

People named Alger with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Also a first name

Alger has been given to 832 American babies as a first name since 1886, peaking in 1919. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.