Alice

AL-is /ˈæl.ɪs/

Girl Old German via Old French ModernTraditional Classic top 100 Rising — climbing in current registries

Meaning of Alice

Root meaning "noble kind; of noble birth"

Alice is the Old French form of the Old German Adalheidis: adal ('noble') + heid ('kind, sort, type'). It is therefore the same underlying name as Adelaide and Heidi. Alice came to English through the Normans and entered literary immortality via Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) — the single most influential literary use of a girl's name in English publishing history.

Current popularity of Alice

Rankings from the most recent fully-published year in each national registry. Source links at the foot of the page.

RegistryYearRank
United States (SSA)2024#63
United Kingdom (ONS)2024#20
France (INSEE)2024#23
Italy (ISTAT)2024#16

Cultural notes

The Carroll effect: Alice dropped to its lowest US position in 1975 (rank 375), then climbed steadily as the Victorian-revival trend took hold, reaching the top-100 again by 2013.

Notable bearers of Alice

Alice (Lewis Carroll, 1865); Alice Walker (author); Alice Paul (suffragist); Alice Munro (Nobel Laureate).

Similar names & variants

Cognates, spelling variants and close relatives. Click any name with an underline to read its own page.

AliciaAliciaAlisonAdelaideAlys

Sibling-name suggestions

Names that pair stylistically with Alice — useful as middle names or for siblings.

CharlotteEleanorHenryOliverTheodore

About this entry

Compiled by the Baby Name Finder editorial team following the rules in our Methodology and Editorial guidelines. If you spot an error, please tell us; our corrections policy is at /editorial-guidelines#corrections.

Sources

Last reviewed: 2026-05-31