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Alistair

#897 in 2025Boys' name

To defend + man

Alistair has been given to 4,088 babies in the U.S. since 1956. In 2025 it ranked #897 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 265 recorded.

Babies named Alistair, 2025

1 in 12,500

Alistair over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alistair: meaning, origin, and history

To defend + man

Scottish Gaelic

What Alistair means

Alistair means “to defend + man”, associated with aléxō and anḗr.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, from Norman Alexandre or Latin Alexander, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), from ἀλέξω (aléxō, “to defend”) + ἀνδρ- (andr-), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Alistair (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Alistair is used in English. Its origins include Scottish Gaelic.

Alistair comes through Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, nrf Alexandre, Latin Alexander and Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Alistair is pronounced /ˈæl.ɪ.stɚ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,088 boys were recorded with the name Alistair between 1956 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 265 in 2025; its best national rank was #885 in 2016.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #961 in 2020 to #897 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,023 in 2015 to #897 in 2025.

How common is Alistair?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 12,500
265 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 6,450
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#897
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
8,672 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alistair 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 2025 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 5004%

Put another way: gather 8,672 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alistair. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alistairs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alistair was born before 2017 — so the typical Alistair is around 8 today.

Median birth year
2017
About 8 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
42.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
89.2%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
4,088
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 42.1% of all recorded uses (1,722).

Is Alistair 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
+12
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+64
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+126
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.34×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (265)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#885
2016

Spellings of Alistair

Alistair is the most-used spelling, taking 53.5% of the 7,636 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Alistair is used

Across 2016–2025, Alistair was most concentrated in Washington — about 1 in 4,167 boys, against 1 in 7,793 across all states with data. It was least common in Louisiana (1 in 50,000).

224 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Washington1 in 4,167
  2. 2Missouri1 in 4,348
  3. 3Indiana1 in 5,000
  4. 4Colorado1 in 5,263
  5. 5Michigan1 in 5,263
  6. 6Ohio1 in 5,263
  7. 7Virginia1 in 5,263
  8. 8Oregon1 in 5,882

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.

Alistair around the world

Where Alistair 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
    #517
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #298
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2019
    #365
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    1969–2025
    #509
    in 2025
  • France
    1977–2025
    #1,390
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #857
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1945–2013
    #317
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Alistair

People whose public names include Alistair, 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.

Alistair in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Alistair. Linked forms have their own page here.

AlasdairAlastairAlexandrIskandarLisandroAlejandroAleksandrAlexanderAlexandreAlexandru

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Alistair by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#897
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 64
Best rank ever
#885
2016
Peak year
2025
265 that year
First recorded
1956
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,088
Count in 2025
265

Names similar to Alistair

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

AlisterSinclairAlastairAlijahAlasdairAlixanderAlisonAliasAldairZyairAlistarAliouneAliceAdairAlixZubairYairAliciaAlimAlizeAliyasBlairAliyanJair

Names with a curve like Alistair

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

AyanYahyaBoazAhmirGatlinAlaricAdlerHenrikKabirHarlemLochlanLev

Sibling names for Alistair

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 Alistair

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