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 [ 2 syll. a-li-ce, al-ice ] The girl name Alice is also used as a boy name, though it is far more popular for girls. It is pronounced AELahS KEY. Alice is of Germanic origin. It is used mainly in Czech, English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. The meaning of Alice is 'of a noble kind'. Two-element name derived from adal and heit which are of the meanings 'noble, honorable' and 'kind, sort, type' respectively. The old form Adalheidis (Germanic) had the short form Adelais (Old French), which itself was further contracted to Adaliz (Old French) and then Alis (Old French). The latter were introduced by the Normans into England in further forms such as Aaliz, Adalis, Alix, Aliz, Alys, and Alyx, and eventually became the name Alice. The name Alice was popularized by the Bele Aaliz medieval romances, and by the 12th century it became widely used in England as well as France. It appeared in Shakespeare's play Henry V (1599) as the name of the attendant Lady Alice. It lost its popularity by the 17th century, having garnered rustic and old-fashioned associations, before enjoying a revival in the 19th century via romance literature, often in the Latinized form Alicia. It was further popularized by the birth of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Alice (1843-1878), and the titular heroine of Lewis Carroll's classic children's novels, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), who is based on Carroll's child friend Alice Pleasance Liddell (1852-1934), the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. See Alice for more info. Alice is a widely used name; it has 71 forms that are used in both English and foreign languages. English forms of the name include Al, Alais, Alaisa, Aleta (also Spanish), Aletha, Alexia (also German and Spanish), Alexie (also German), Alica (also Czech and Slavic), Alicea, Alicia (also Latinized, Spanish, and Scandinavian), Alika (also Hawaiian), Alike (also Greek), Alis (also Welsh), Alisa (also German, Russian, Slavic, and Hebrew), Alise (also Latvian), Alisha, Alisia (also Polish), Alison (also French and Scottish), Alissa (also Hebrew), Alithia, Alix (also French), Alize, Ally, Allyce, Allys, Alycia, Alys (also Welsh), Alyse, Elise (also German, Dutch, French, and Scandinavian), Elisha, Eliza (also Romanian, Hungarian, and Polish), Elsa (also Scandinavian, Spanish, Finnish, German, and Scottish), Else (also German and Scandinavian), Elsie (also Scottish), Elza (also Slavic), and Ilisha. Other English forms include the short form Ali, the pet forms Alie (also used in Dutch and ), Alisan (also used in French, and Scottish), Alli (also used in Finnish and ), Allie, Ellie (also used in Scottish), and Ellis, and the spelling variants Allice and Alyce. Forms of Alice used in foreign languages include the German Adelicia, the Scottish Aileas, the Irish Ailis, the Irish Ailish, the Irish Ailís, the Polish Ala, the Polish Alicja, the Finnish Aliisa, the Polish Alinka, the Tongan Alisi, the Hungarian Alisz, the Greek and Hungarian Aliz, the Catalan and Portuguese Alícia, the Irish Alís, the Russian and Arabic Alya, the Romanian Elica, the German Elschen, the German and Dutch Ilse, the Spanish Licha, and the Greek and Hungarian Lici. Specific foreign variants include the pet forms Ailie (Scottish), Aillie (Gaelic), Ailsa (Scottish), Ailsie (Scottish), Elke (Dutch, Frisian, and German), and Elkie (Dutch and German). Alice is an English, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese form of the Dutch, German, and Scandinavian Adelheid. Alice is also a Czech, English, French, and Italian pet form of the English and Italian Adelaide. See also the related forms, the English and Hebrew Aliza, the English Allyssa, the English Alysa, the English Alysha, the English Alysia, the English and Hebrew Alyssa, and the French Adelais. Alice is an all-time favorite. Currently it is still rather popular as a baby girl name, but not to the degree it was previously. At the height of its usage in 1906, 1.338% of baby girls were named Alice. It was #8 in rank then. The baby name has seen a marked drop in frequency since then, and is of only modest use in recent times. In 2008, it ranked at #326 with a usage of 0.049%. Within the family of girl names directly related to Alice, the English and Hebrew Alyssa was the most popular. It was 9 times more frequently used than Alice in 2008. Alice has in the last century been primarily given to girls. In 1937, 170 times more girls than boys were given the name Alice. Baby names that sound like Alice include the name Alake, the Russian Aleks, the English Alex, the English Alexus, the English Alexys, the Greek and English Alike, the English and Welsh Alis, the English and Latvian Alise, the Hungarian Alisz, the English and French Alix, the Greek and Hungarian Aliz, the English Alize, the Irish Alís, the Polish Alka, the name Alkas, the English Allyce, the English Allys, the Spanish Aloise, the French Aloyse, and the French Alsace. Details of famous persons named Alice: KEY: Pronunciation for Alice: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)"   |
