Alva
Alva is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 8 births. Its best rank was 162nd, in 1882.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 80.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 1917317 births
- Best rank
- #162in 1882
- Since 1880
- 20,130people given the name
The story in the numbers
11,263 boys have been named Alva in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1917, with 317 births.
The name has all but left use: 8 births in 2024, against 317 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1926, and the 1920s alone account for 23%. It has spent 81 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
Alva is used for both sexes: 44% of its bearers are girls (8,867), most of them born around 1918.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Alva | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 663 | |
| 1890s | 689 | |
| 1900s | 575 | |
| 1910s | 1,978 | |
| 1920s | 2,551 | |
| 1930s | 1,681 | |
| 1940s | 1,216 | |
| 1950s | 717 | |
| 1960s | 479 | |
| 1970s | 292 | |
| 1980s | 158 | |
| 1990s | 104 | |
| 2000s | 52 | |
| 2010s | 65 | |
| 2020s | 43 |
In 1917, its biggest year
Alva was the 294th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1917 were John, William, James, Robert and Joseph. See all of 1917.
Names that rose and fell with Alva
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Harrypeak 1918
- Claudpeak 1919
- Columbuspeak 1922
- Ciceropeak 1920
- Adolphuspeak 1922
- Clempeak 1917
- Fredpeak 1924
- Guspeak 1921
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.