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Alf

Boys' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Alf has been given to 1,130 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1916, with 38 recorded.

Babies named Alf, 1979

1 in 665,000

Alf over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alf: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Germanic languages and Old Norse

What Alf means

Alf has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: “elf”.

The naming story behind Alf

One of the source’s documented entries for Alf records a meaning of elf.

A separate documented entry treats Alf as a short form of Alfred. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

A separate documented entry treats Alf as a short form of Adolf. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

Origin, language, and formation

Alf is used in English, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish. Its origins include Germanic languages and Old Norse.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Alfred, Alfonso, Adolf and Alv.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Alf is pronounced /ælf/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,130 boys were recorded with the name Alf between 1880 and 1979. Its highest annual count was 38 in 1916; its best national rank was #460 in 1883.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Alf?

Alf had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1979, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1979
1 in 665,000
5 of 3,326,731 births
Among boys only
1 in 344,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1979
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
461,184 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alf sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1979 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 461,184 children born in 1979 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alf. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alfs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alf was born before 1921 — so the typical Alf is around 104 today.

Median birth year
1921
About 104 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
23.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
8.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
139
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 23.9% of all recorded uses (270).

Is Alf rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1916 (38)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#460
1883

Where Alf is used

Across 1910–2025, Alf was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 263,658 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 25,000
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 100,000
  3. 3Alabama1 in —
  4. 4Mississippi1 in —
  5. 5New York1 in —
  6. 6Tennessee1 in —
  7. 7Washington1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Alf has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Alf around the world

Where Alf ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,440
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #259
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1959–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Alf by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#460
1883
Peak year
1916
38 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
1979
All-time count
1,130
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Alf

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AlfieAlferdAlfaAlfonsAlfonseAlfioRalfAlfonzoAlfonzaAlfordAlfardAlfonsaAlfyAlfonsoAlfonziaAlfredoAlfredAlfredaAlfreadAlfonceAlfreddieAlferdoAlforniaAlfonzie

Sibling names for Alf

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Alf

Top names of 1916, Alf's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1883Boys' names starting with A