Alistair

Alistair: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“defender of men”
Origin
Scottish Gaelic
Say it
AL-ih-stair · 3 syllables
Used for
Boys

Alistair is an Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, a form of Alexander. The name ultimately comes from Greek Alexandros.

How popular is Alistair?

202477.0 per million US babies
1880192019602000
Drag the line or the slider to read any year. Values are per million US births recorded by Social Security. Records before about 1937 undercount births, so early peaks can look taller than they were.

Babies named Alistair in 2024257

2024 rank#907 boys

Peak year2024

Total US babies since 18803,822

Alistair is rising: use over the last five years is 2.2× what it was a decade earlier.

Names like Alistair

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

Alistair questions

What does the name Alistair mean?

Alistair means "defender of men". It comes from Scottish Gaelic. Alistair is an Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, a form of Alexander. The name ultimately comes from Greek Alexandros.

Is Alistair a boy or girl name?

Alistair is mainly a boy's name in US records (100% of uses since 1880).

How popular is Alistair?

257 US babies were named Alistair in 2024. Its peak year was 2024.

How do you pronounce Alistair?

Alistair is usually pronounced AL-ih-stair.

Birth counts: US Social Security Administration national data, 1880–2024 (names given to 5+ babies of a sex in a year). How we write meanings.