Name Awesome

Alys

#4,884 in 2025Girls' name

Noble + character

Alys has been given to 1,359 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,884 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1920, with 29 recorded.

Babies named Alys, 2025

1 in 123,000

Alys over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Alys: meaning, origin, and history

Noble + character

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Alys means

Alys means “noble + character”, associated with aþalaz and haiduz.

Origin, language, and formation

Alys is used in Cornish, Old French and Welsh.

Alys comes through Old French Alys, Old High German Adalheid and Proto-Germanic *aþalaz.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Alice.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Welsh, Alys is pronounced /ˈalɨ̞s/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,359 girls were recorded with the name Alys between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 29 in 1920; its best national rank was #840 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,980 in 2020 to #4,884 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #7,289 in 2015 to #4,884 in 2025.

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 Alys?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 123,000
27 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 59,500
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,884
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
85,108 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Alys sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 85,108 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Alys. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Alyss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Alys was born before 1953 — so the typical Alys is around 72 today.

Median birth year
1953
About 72 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
14.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
24.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
712
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 14.6% of all recorded uses (199).

Is Alys 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
+274
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+4,096
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+2,405
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.69×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
93.1%
Peak was 1920 (29)
Years since peak
105
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#840
1880

Spellings of Alys

Alys is not the most common spelling — Amy is, with 42.8% against Alys's 0.08%.

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 Alys is used

Across 1910–2025, Alys was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,831,667 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3New York1 in —
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Alys has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Alys around the world

Where Alys 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
    #490
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2002–2019
    #650
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    2019–2019
    #716
    in 2019
  • France
    1984–2025
    #2,725
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2003–2022
    #2,896
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1956–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS 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.

Alys by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,884
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 4,096
Best rank ever
#840
1880
Peak year
1920
29 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,359
Count in 2025
27

Names similar to Alys

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

AlyxAlyaAlyahAlyAlynAlyzaAlynaAlysseAlyiaAlyiahAlynnaAlynnAlyssAlyanaAlyraAlydiaAlyssonAlysaAlylaAlyneAlyseAlyannaAlyzahAlyric

Sibling names for Alys

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 Alys

Top names of 1920, Alys's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Girls' names starting with ACornish Girl NamesCornish Names