9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Alistair

Pronunciation
[A-lis-tair]
Gender
Male
Meaning
Variant Of Alexander - Defender Of Mankind.
Origin
Scottish
Guardian or protector.

Alistair Popularity Snapshot

Across the entire US Social Security Administration record (1880–2024), 3,822 baby boys have been named Alistair. The name peaked in 2024 with 257 US births that year (rank #905). In 2024, ranked #905 nationally.

Top States for Alistair

Based on 1910–2024 US SSA state-level records, the three states with the most Alistair births are: California (391), Texas (216), New York (169).

Other Scottish-Origin Names Like Alistair

If you like Alistair's Scottish origin, consider these related names: Abhainn, Abhainn, Aibne, Acair, Acaiseid, Achaius. Browse all Scottish names →

8-Letter Names Starting with A

Names with Alistair's exact length and starting letter: Aaleahya, Aarshiya, Abaigael, Abaigeal, Aballach.

Quick Facts About Alistair

520
Scottish baby names in our dictionary
373
Scottish male names
242
8-letter A-names in our dictionary
1,087
A-male names total
2016–2025
years of US SSA records (9 total)
2,194
total US births named Alistair (all years)

US Popularity History (2016–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Alistair climbed 64 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#961 in 2020 → #897 in 2025).

Annual US births named Alistair by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 265 boys named Alistair (boy rank #897 that year).

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Alistair Most Popular?

Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Alistair the strongest states are Oregon, Massachusetts, Kentucky.

Strongest boys-name states

# State Avg rank Births
1 Oregon #515 20
2 Massachusetts #602 22
3 Kentucky #629 17
4 Minnesota #645 21
5 Oklahoma #659 22
6 Colorado #666 42
7 Missouri #699 57
8 Maryland #709 30
9 Virginia #726 61
10 Ohio #745 81

Weakest boys-name states

# State Avg rank Births
1 Illinois #996 32
2 New York #960 51
3 Florida #884 76
4 New Jersey #873 19
5 North Carolina #861 69
6 California #860 249
7 Georgia #844 39
8 Tennessee #843 27
9 Pennsylvania #838 62
10 Arizona #835 42

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Alistair in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

NameMeaningGenderOrigin
Alastair Defender Of Man Male Scottish

Looking for names like Alistair?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

See all names like Alistair →

Compare Alistair to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Alistair against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Compare to a different name →

Alistair Baby Name Ideas