Alto
UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Alto has been given to 592 babies in the U.S. since 1881. 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 1919, with 20 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.
Babies named Alto, 1991
1 in 779,000
Alto over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Alto over time
In 1991, Alto went to 0% girls and 100% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Alto?
Alto had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1991, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1991
- 1 in 779,000
- 5 of 3,892,928 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 404,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 1991
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 539,676 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Alto sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1991 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 539,676 children born in 1991 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alto. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Altos were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Alto was born before 1925 — so the typical Alto is around 100 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1910s
- 23.2% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 4.3%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 97
- People you could plausibly meet
1910s — 23.2% of all recorded uses (130).
Is Alto 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 1919 (20)
- Years since peak
- 106
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 27.3% average annual change
Spellings of Alto
Alto is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 25.9% against Alto's 0.04%.
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 Alto is used
Across 1910–2025, Alto was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 20,000 boys, against 1 in 49,946 across all states with data. It was least common in Georgia (1 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. Alto has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Alto by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Alto
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Alto
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.