Alina
Meaning
traditionally linked to noble, as a short form of Adelina; a popular modern pick across Eastern Europe
The story
Alina has never had a moment, only a direction. Start in the 1960s, when the American record shows about 490 girls, and read forward: 1,200 in the 1970s, 1,900 in the 1980s, 4,300 in the 1990s, 9,600 in the 2000s, 15,600 in the 2010s, every decade higher than the one before, with 12,100 more so far this decade. No spike, so nothing to regret later. The name works in so many languages that the rise needs no single explanation: it is at home in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and Romanian, familiar across the Spanish-speaking world, and effortless in English. Its origins are correspondingly braided; the usual account runs through Adelina back to the old Germanic word for noble, though more than one tradition claims a thread. Every one of the roughly 45,000 bearers in our records is a girl. Lina is the natural short form, with Ali for the schoolyard.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Alina peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
3,316 people · the #3,622 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 62,500 · median age 35
Among people named Alina living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 234 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Alina
Most people given the name Alina in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Alina deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Alina truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Alina fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Alina travels
Urdu and Pakistani · in Muslim South Asian use linked to Arabic leen, softness and delicacy; also an independent European name, and that double reading is much of its appeal to diaspora parents
Ukrainian · traditionally linked to noble, via Adelina
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Alina · Urdu and Pakistani baby names · Russian baby names · Ukrainian baby names
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