Name Awesome

Alvah

Boys' name

His highness

Alvah has been given to 1,880 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 55 recorded.

Babies named Alvah, 2024

1 in 669,000

Alvah over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alvah: meaning, origin, and history

His highness

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Alvah means

Alvah means “his highness”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Alvah is used in Biblical.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈæl.və/ for Alvah.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,808 boys were recorded with the name Alvah between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 55 in 1916; its best national rank was #364 in 1885.

In the United States, 72 girls were recorded with the name Alvah between 1900 and 1941. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1926; its best national rank was #1,728 in 1900.

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 Alvah?

Alvah had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alvah 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 2024 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alvah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alvahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alvah was born before 1927 — so the typical Alvah is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
20.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
351
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 20.4% of all recorded uses (369).

Is Alvah 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 (55)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#364
1885

Spellings of Alvah

Alvah is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 52.8% against Alvah's 0.26%.

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 Alvah is used

Across 1910–2025, Alvah was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 276,928 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 33,333
  2. 2Virginia1 in 100,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in —
  5. 5North Carolina1 in —
  6. 6New Jersey1 in —
  7. 7New York1 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. Alvah has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Alvah around the world

Where Alvah 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
    2018–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    2013–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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

Alvah 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
#364
1885
Peak year
1916
55 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
1,808
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,728
1900
Peak year
1926
8 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
1941
All-time count
72
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Alvah

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

AlvieAlvisAlvanAlveyAlvinoNovahAlvaAlvenAlviaAlvaroAlvonAlvyAlverAlvarAlvinAlvesterAlviAlvynAlvertoAlvernAlvoidAlveAlvarezAlvord

Sibling names for Alvah

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 Alvah

Top names of 1916, Alvah's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1885Boys' names starting with A