Alta

Where Alta comes from

The dictionaries list Alta as a given name — a female given name from Latin possibly from Latin alta (“high”), fairly common in the United States in the nineteenth century — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Latin
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #151 among girls — 91 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1881
    Peak, #137
    114 babies named Alta — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1904
    Alta Allen born
    actress
  4. 1939
    Alta Vášová born
    Slovak writer
  5. 1963
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,815.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Latin possibly from Latin alta (“high”), fairly common in the United States in the nineteenth century.
  • A male given name from Latin.
  • A census-designated place in Placer County, California, United States.
Namesakes
  • Alta Allen · actress, 1904–1998
  • Alta Vášová · Slovak writer, born 1939
  • Alta Kotze · cricketer, born 1971
  • Alta Cohen · American baseball player, 1908–2003
  • Alta Rockefeller Prentice · American philanthropist, 1871–1962

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.