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Alford

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Alford has been given to 4,795 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 1930, with 106 recorded.

Babies named Alford, 2019

1 in 694,000

Alford over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alford: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Alford means

Alford is a given name.

The naming story behind Alford

Wikidata records Alford as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q20021665, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,790 boys were recorded with the name Alford between 1880 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 106 in 1930; its best national rank was #417 in 1881.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Alford between 1924 and 1924. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1924; its best national rank was #5,087 in 1924.

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.

How common is Alford?

Alford had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 694,000
5 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 359,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
481,354 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alford 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 2019 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 481,354 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alford. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alfords were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alford was born before 1936 — so the typical Alford is around 89 today.

Median birth year
1936
About 89 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
18.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,443
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 18.7% of all recorded uses (897).

Is Alford 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 1930 (106)
Years since peak
95
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#417
1881

Spellings of Alford

Alford is not the most common spelling — Alfred is, with 76.2% against Alford's 1.5%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Alford is used

Across 1910–2025, Alford was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 14,286 boys, against 1 in 50,029 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

07 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 14,286
  2. 2Alabama1 in 16,667
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 16,667
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 16,667
  5. 5Texas1 in 20,000
  6. 6Georgia1 in 33,333
  7. 7South Carolina1 in 33,333
  8. 8Tennessee1 in 33,333

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. Alford has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Alford

People whose public names include Alford, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Alford 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
#417
1881
Peak year
1930
106 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
4,790
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,087
1924
Peak year
1924
5 that year
First recorded
1924
Last recorded
1924
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Alford

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

AlfonzoBufordRayfordAlfieRexfordCrawfordWilfordAlferdAlfonsoAlfonzaSanfordAlfredoStanfordAlfonseStaffordWinfordRadfordGaylordLenordFordAlfonsCordMilfordAlfred

Names with a curve like Alford

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Alford, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AlvisTheadoreDorseyHowellLoyWinfordRollinBonnieOthaBeverlyHaywardCarleton

Sibling names for Alford

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 Alford

Top names of 1930, Alford's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with A