Alice

Where Alice comes from

From Middle English Alice, from Old French Alys, Alice, from Old High German Adalheid, proposed to derive from Proto-Germanic *aþalaz (“noble”) + *haiduz (“character”). Doublet of Adelaide.
— Wiktionary's entry for Alice
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #8 among girls — 1,414 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1906
    Peak, #8
    4,192 babies named Alice — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1931
    Alice Munro born
    Canadian writer
  4. 1944
    Alice Walker born
    American author and activist
  5. 2024
    The comeback
    Back to #63 after sinking to #444 in 2002.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from the Germanic languages popular in England since the Middle Ages.
Namesakes
  • Alice Munro · Canadian writer, 1931–2024
  • Alice Walker · American author and activist, born 1944
  • Alice Cooper · American singer, born 1948
  • Alice Weidel · German politician (born 1979), AfD, born 1979
  • Alice Brady · American actress, 1892–1939

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.