My middle name, Alice, has been in the family for a few generations, given to various female family members. I love it. Recently I've started researching name histories and origins, and I'd like to find out more about the name, it's meaning, and where it started in my family.
Utilizing the charts on babynamewizard.com, which have been created using information from the Social Security Administration, I looked at the history of Alice in the U.S. throughout the last 130 years or so. In 1880, Alice was the #10 most popular girl's name in the country. This may have been influenced by Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" being published originally in 1865 (1), or perhaps the girl for whom the title character had been named was an effect of a previous Alice. I hadn't realized this before, but there's a slight blue bump around 1890, showing that 43 out of every million babies in the U.S. born those years were males named Alice. So it was briefly a mainstream boy name.
Obviously, the rate of babies named Alice decreased greatly in the mid-20th century. Variations of the name continued in differing forms as the "original" became antiquated. Names like Alicia/Alisha, Alison/Allison, Alissa, as well as Alycia, Alyssa, and Alysson took the forefront. None of those, even combined, reached the original popularity of Alice in it's heyday, but did greatly out distance Alice in the 1980s to 2000. Those names started to fall in the 21st century, giving way to other "A" names, such as "Aliyah" and "Ava." In the mean time, "old lady names" were making a comeback. (2) "Alice" has started to return to the charts, (3), and in 2011 reached 142 in the Social Security Administration's popular baby names chart. (4)
Popular Alice personalities in the past have been Alice in Wonderland, Alice Kramden of the Honeymooners [1950s], Alice Nelson of the Brady Bunch [1970s], heavy-metal band/singer Alice Cooper [popular in 1960s-present], and recently Alice Cullen of the Twilight series. (5)
Origins and Meaning
The book, "A World of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, describes Alice:
My Family
The first Alice I can see in the family line which carries the name is my Great-great-grandma Alice Rozella Smith, who often went by the nickname "Zella." Born to a father with around five wives, she had nine immediate siblings, of which she was the youngest, and up to fifty half-siblings, some of whom died in infancy. Her family had come from England before she was born, and settled around Brigham City, Utah. Her mother, Sarah Jane Ingram (Ingraham) Smith passed away at the age of 36, when Zella was just 2-years-old. She stayed nearby after she married, living in Ogden with with own family. She married William Empey on Christmas day in 1888 and had seven children.
I am honored to carry the name Alice, to be called noble after my brave, hard-working Grandmother, and hope to bestow the name Alice in my family line.
(1) https://sites.google.com/site/lewiscarroll1steditions/first-editions-of-alice-published-elsewhere
(2) http://www.parenting.com/article/20-old-fashioned-baby-names-are-back-style
(3) http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2010/2/names-on-the-verge-alice-0
(4) http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi
(5) imdb.com
(6) http://thoth.library.utah.edu:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MWDL&docId=digcoll_usa_24187405&fromSitemap=1&afterPDS=true
(7) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=editGr&GRid=22204324
(8) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~rhutch/famhistory/d&ssmith/sarah_jane_ingram_history.html
Recent History
Utilizing the charts on babynamewizard.com, which have been created using information from the Social Security Administration, I looked at the history of Alice in the U.S. throughout the last 130 years or so. In 1880, Alice was the #10 most popular girl's name in the country. This may have been influenced by Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" being published originally in 1865 (1), or perhaps the girl for whom the title character had been named was an effect of a previous Alice. I hadn't realized this before, but there's a slight blue bump around 1890, showing that 43 out of every million babies in the U.S. born those years were males named Alice. So it was briefly a mainstream boy name.
Popular Alice personalities in the past have been Alice in Wonderland, Alice Kramden of the Honeymooners [1950s], Alice Nelson of the Brady Bunch [1970s], heavy-metal band/singer Alice Cooper [popular in 1960s-present], and recently Alice Cullen of the Twilight series. (5)
Origins and Meaning
The book, "A World of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, describes Alice:
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| http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ |
"A name that has evolved through a series of variants of the Germanic Adalheidis, a compound name composed of the elements adal (noble, nobility) and heid (kind, sort): hence, "noble one." Adalheidis was contracted to Adalheid, which the French changed to Adelaide, then contracted to Adaliz, and contracted yet again to Aaliz, Alia, and Alix. The English then changed the spelling to Aeleis, Alys, and eventually to Alice."So "Alice" isn't exactly the original name or even original spelling. It has the same root as the Edelweiss flower of musical fame. Noble one...I could see that in the women of my family: regal, royal, and honorable. Adelaide has also been making a comeback, reaching the 407th rank in the most popular names of 2011 in the U.S. (4). In fact, the entire "noble family" of Adel- has much the same trend as Alice.
My Family
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| Alice Rozella Smith Empey, (7) |
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| Alice Rozella Smith Empey's death certificate (6) |
The first Alice I can see in the family line which carries the name is my Great-great-grandma Alice Rozella Smith, who often went by the nickname "Zella." Born to a father with around five wives, she had nine immediate siblings, of which she was the youngest, and up to fifty half-siblings, some of whom died in infancy. Her family had come from England before she was born, and settled around Brigham City, Utah. Her mother, Sarah Jane Ingram (Ingraham) Smith passed away at the age of 36, when Zella was just 2-years-old. She stayed nearby after she married, living in Ogden with with own family. She married William Empey on Christmas day in 1888 and had seven children.
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Alice's mom, (8)
Sarah Jane Ingram (Ingraham) Smith
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I am honored to carry the name Alice, to be called noble after my brave, hard-working Grandmother, and hope to bestow the name Alice in my family line.
(1) https://sites.google.com/site/lewiscarroll1steditions/first-editions-of-alice-published-elsewhere
(2) http://www.parenting.com/article/20-old-fashioned-baby-names-are-back-style
(3) http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2010/2/names-on-the-verge-alice-0
(4) http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi
(5) imdb.com
(6) http://thoth.library.utah.edu:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MWDL&docId=digcoll_usa_24187405&fromSitemap=1&afterPDS=true
(7) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=editGr&GRid=22204324
(8) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~rhutch/famhistory/d&ssmith/sarah_jane_ingram_history.html
