Alvah

Where Alvah comes from

Alvah hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #403 among boys — 18 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1885
    Peak, #364
    23 babies named Alvah — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1886
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #694.
  4. 1888
    Alvah Meyer born
    athletics competitor
  5. 1904
    Alvah Bessie born
    American politician
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Alvah Bessie · American politician, 1904–1985
  • Alvah Meyer · athletics competitor, 1888–1939
  • Alvah Augustus Eaton · U.S. botanist, 1865–1908
  • Alvah Curtis Roebuck · American businessman, 1864–1948
  • Alvah Augustus Clark · American politician, 1840–1912

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.