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The first name 
Alistair

Alistair is a male first name.

Alistair is a common name for boys!

The name Alistair isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Alistair ranks 920. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 1 were named Alistair. If you polled the whole US population – children, adults and seniors – you’d find less than one in 10,000 to be named Alistair.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Alistair

Alistair -
keeping with the times

Alistair is a fairly recent phenomenon. In the past, the name wasn't really on the radar of expectant parents. Then, unexpectedly, Alistair cried out for attention, reaching its peak in popularity at #828 in our SmartGenius statistics in the year 2016. People over 50 probably didn't have classmates named Alistair, for there were many years in which not a single parent chose this first name for their son. Although it also has never been in the top 100 of most popular first names, Alistair seems to have been in vogue for a while, especially since the beginning of the new millennium.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Alistair was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Alistair in 2022 – for some parents the most beautiful name in the world

246 babies were named Alistair in 2022 - that's 1 in 656,203 newborn boys. With this number, the boys' name Alistair ranked 867 in our SmartGenius first name statistics in 2022, the most recent year for which records are available.

Alistair -
special, but at home in many states

You may not know anyone named Alistair, but there’s a good chance you live in the same state as someone with that name. In fact, 32 states are home to men and boys named Alistair. (To be fair, a given name is only included in a state’s official statistics if there are at least five people with that name living in that state – so it’s entirely possible that there are still a few men and boys named Alistair living in one state or another. If your name is Alistair and you live outside of the states highlighted on the map, please let us know so we can refine our statistics even further). And while the first name is present in many states, it is still not one of the popular ones. In Washington, which has the most people named Alistair relative to the population, you still have to ask 36,132 men and boys their names before you hear Alistair as an answer just once.

Alistair has 8 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is a very popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 9.0% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter J is more common for boys' names.

With eight letters, the name Alistair is long compared to other names. In fact, 14.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly eight letters. 78% of all first names are shorter, while only 8% of all boys’ and girls’ names use nine letters or even more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long with no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 9.0% of all boys' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the boys' names that start with an A, Anthony is the most common.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Alistair

If your name is Alistair and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Alistair

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Alistair, you can simply say:

Apple

Lion

Igloo

Sun

Tiger

Apple

Igloo

Rocket

This is how the name Alistair is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Alistair in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Alistair

Alistair

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Alistair

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Alistair is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
L
I
S
T
A
I
R

Have you ever waved the name Alistair

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
L
I
S
T
A
I
R

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Alistair sounds like this: