Alfred

92,300 people in America carry this name — ranked #580 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it ALF ruhd

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

AE1 L F R AH0 D — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 92,300 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 30.6 about 1 in 3,591 people
  • As a surname 6,564 ranked #5,149 the other way round

What Alfred means and where it comes from

Teutonic in origin, reading literally as “elf council”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Alfred through the years

243,749 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1928, with 6,287 of them.

80 90 00 10 20s 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1920s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Alfred

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Alfred David — runs together
  • Alfred Daniel — runs together
  • Alfred Andrew — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Alfred was 1928. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Boys or girls: who is called Alfred?

99.8% men
157 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Who carries it today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 56.5%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 22.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 14.4%
  • Two or more races — 2.2%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 3.4%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 1.2%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

The states where Alfred is most common

In Hawaii the name is given 2.7 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Hawaii ×2.7
  • Louisiana ×2.3
  • New Mexico ×2.2
  • Rhode Island ×2.1
  • the District of Columbia ×1.8

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The same name abroad

  • Alfredo Italian
  • Alfried German
  • Alfreda English

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Same syllables and stress as Alfred

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Teutonic origin